title: Heart development: molecular insights into cardiac specification and early morphogenesis.
abstract: The heart develops from two bilateral heart fields that are formed during early gastrulation. In recent years, signaling pathways that specify cardiac mesoderm have been extensively analyzed. In addition, a battery of transcription factors that regulate different aspects of cardiac morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation have been identified and characterized in model organisms. At the anterior pole, a secondary heart field is formed, which in its molecular make-up, appears to be similar to the primary heart field. The cardiac outflow tract and the right ventricle to a large extent are derivatives of this anterior heart field. Cardiac mesoderm receives positional information by which it is patterned along the three body axes. The molecular control of left-right axis development has received particular attention, and the underlying regulatory network begins to emerge. Cardiac chamber development involves the activation of a transcription program that is different from the one present in the primary heart field and regulates cardiac morphogenesis in a region-specific manner. This review also attempts to identify areas in which additional research is needed to fully understand early cardiac development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Technical University of Braunschweig, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. t.brand@tu-bs.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brand
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D002465:Cell Movement; D005544:Forecasting; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors