PUBLICATION

Reactivation of an embryonic cardiac neural crest transcriptional profile during zebrafish heart regeneration

Authors
Dhillon-Richardson, R.M., Haugan, A.K., Lyons, L.W., McKenna, J.K., Bronner, M.E., Martik, M.L.
ID
ZDB-PUB-250619-3
Date
2025
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America   122: e2423697122e2423697122 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Bronner-Fraser, Marianne
Keywords
cardiac regeneration, gene regulatory network, neural crest, single cell RNA-seq, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Zebrafish*/embryology
  • Zebrafish*/genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Regeneration*/genetics
  • Regeneration*/physiology
  • Heart*/embryology
  • Heart*/physiology
  • Neural Crest*/embryology
  • Neural Crest*/metabolism
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • SOXE Transcription Factors/genetics
  • SOXE Transcription Factors/metabolism
  • Animals
PubMed
40531881 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Abstract
During vertebrate development, the heart primarily arises from mesoderm, with crucial contributions from cardiac neural crest (CdNC) cells that migrate to the heart and form a variety of cardiovascular derivatives. Here, by integrating bulk and single cell RNA-seq with ATAC-seq, we identify a gene regulatory subcircuit specific to migratory cardiac crest cells composed of key transcription factors egr1, sox9a, tfap2a, and ets1. Notably, we show that cells expressing the canonical neural crest gene sox10 are essential for proper cardiac regeneration in adult zebrafish. Furthermore, expression of all transcription factors from the migratory cardiac crest gene subcircuit are reactivated after injury at the wound edge. Together, our results uncover a developmental gene regulatory network that is important for CdNC fate determination, with key factors of the program reexpressed during regeneration.
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