title: A strategy to discover new organizers identifies a putative heart organizer.
abstract: Organizers are regions of the embryo that can both induce new fates and impart pattern on other regions. So far, surprisingly few organizers have been discovered, considering the number of patterned tissue types generated during development. This may be because their discovery has relied on transplantation and ablation experiments. Here we describe a new approach, using chick embryos, to discover organizers based on a common gene expression signature, and use it to uncover the anterior intestinal portal (AIP) endoderm as a putative heart organizer. We show that the AIP can induce cardiac identity from non-cardiac mesoderm and that it can pattern this by specifying ventricular and suppressing atrial regional identity. We also uncover some of the signals responsible. The method holds promise as a tool to discover other novel organizers acting during development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Mohsin A F
authors.initials: MAF
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomics and Genetics, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Solovieva
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Nidia M M
authors.initials: NMM
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Systems Analysis Section, MRC Human Genetics Unit, IGMM, University of Edinburgh, Crewe Road, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Baldock
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology &Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
authors.forename: Cheryll
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tickle
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomics and Genetics, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Dave W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Burt
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Claudio D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Stern
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D019521:Body Patterning; D002645:Chickens; D004707:Endoderm / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D007422:Intestines / Q000196:embryology; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D020897:Organizers, Embryonic / Q000378:metabolism*; D011784:Quail; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers