Journal
BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-MOLECULAR CELL RESEARCH
Volume 1833, Issue 4, Pages 783-794Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2012.10.004
Keywords
Heart; Conduction system; Evolution; Development; Electrophysiology; Gene expression
Categories
Funding
- Danish Research Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Early cardiac development involves the formation of a heart tube, looping of the tube and formation of chambers. These processes are highly similar among all vertebrates, which suggest the existence of evolutionary conservation of the building plan of the heart From the jawless lampreys to man, T-box transcription factors like Tbx5 and Tbx20 are fundamental for heart formation, whereas Tbx2 and Tbx3 repress chamber formation on the sinu-atrial and atrioventricular borders. Also, electrocardiograms from different vertebrates are alike, even though the fish heart only has two chambers whereas the mammalian heart has four chambers divided by septa and in addition has much higher heart rates. We conclude that most features of the high-performance hearts of mammals and birds can be traced back to less developed traits in the hearts of ectothermic vertebrates. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cardiomyocyte biology: Cardiac pathways of differentiation, metabolism and contraction. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available