Reim Ingolf, Frasch Manfred
Division of Developmental Biology, Department of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Staudtstr. 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany.
Pediatr Cardiol. 2010 Apr;31(3):325-34. doi: 10.1007/s00246-009-9612-1. Epub 2009 Dec 25.
The linear heart tube of the fruit fly Drosophila has served as a very valuable model for studying the regulation of early heart development. In the past, regulatory genes of Drosophila cardiogenesis have been identified largely through candidate approaches. The vast genetic toolkit available in this organism has made it possible to determine their functions and build regulatory networks of transcription factors and signaling inputs that control heart development. In this review, we summarize the major findings from this study and present current approaches aiming to identify additional players in the specification, morphogenesis, and differentiation of the heart by forward genetic screens. We also discuss various genomic and bioinformatic approaches that are currently being developed to extend the known transcriptional networks more globally which, in combination with the genetic approaches, will provide a comprehensive picture of the regulatory circuits during cardiogenesis.
果蝇的线性心脏管已成为研究早期心脏发育调控的非常有价值的模型。过去，果蝇心脏发生的调控基因主要是通过候选方法鉴定出来的。这种生物体中可用的大量遗传工具使得确定它们的功能以及构建控制心脏发育的转录因子和信号输入的调控网络成为可能。在这篇综述中，我们总结了这项研究的主要发现，并介绍了目前旨在通过正向遗传筛选来识别心脏特化、形态发生和分化过程中其他参与者的方法。我们还讨论了目前正在开发的各种基因组和生物信息学方法，这些方法旨在更全面地扩展已知的转录网络，与遗传方法相结合，将提供心脏发生过程中调控回路的全貌。
