Zebrafish genetics and vertebrate heart formation.
Forward-genetic analyses in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans have given us unprecedented insights into many developmental mechanisms. To study the formation of organs that contain cell types and structures not present in invertebrates, a vertebrate model system amenable to forward genetics would be very useful. Recent work shows that a newly initiated genetic approach in zebrafish is already making significant contributions to understanding the development of the vertebrate heart, an organ that contains several vertebrate-specific features. These and other studies point to the utility of the zebrafish system for studying a wide range of vertebrate-specific processes.
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0448, San Francisco, California 94143-0448, USA. didier_stainier@biochem.ucsf.edu
D Y
DY
Stainier
D000818:Animals; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000235:genetics; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D009024:Morphogenesis; D009154:Mutation; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*