Grow M W, Krieg P A
Department of Zoology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA.
Dev Biol. 1998 Dec 1;204(1):187-96. doi: 10.1006/dbio.1998.9080.
In Drosophila, the tinman gene is absolutely required for development of the dorsal vessel, the insect equivalent of the heart. In vertebrates, the tinman gene is represented by a small family of tinman-related sequences, some of which are expressed during embryonic heart development. At present however, the precise importance of this gene family for vertebrate heart development is unclear. Using the Xenopus embryo, we have employed a dominant inhibitory strategy to interfere with the function of the endogenous tinman-related genes. In these experiments, suppression of tinman gene function can result in the complete elimination of myocardial gene expression and the absence of cell movements associated with embryonic heart development. This inhibition can be rescued by expression of wild-type tinman sequences. These experiments indicate that function of tinman family genes is essential for development of the vertebrate heart.
在果蝇中，tinman基因对于背血管（相当于昆虫的心脏）的发育是绝对必需的。在脊椎动物中，tinman基因由一小类与tinman相关的序列代表，其中一些在胚胎心脏发育过程中表达。然而目前，这个基因家族对脊椎动物心脏发育的确切重要性尚不清楚。利用非洲爪蟾胚胎，我们采用了显性抑制策略来干扰内源性tinman相关基因的功能。在这些实验中，tinman基因功能的抑制可导致心肌基因表达完全消除，以及与胚胎心脏发育相关的细胞运动缺失。这种抑制可通过野生型tinman序列的表达来挽救。这些实验表明，tinman家族基因的功能对于脊椎动物心脏的发育至关重要。
