Heart Parts

Hearts are built to last – beating millions of times over a lifetime – but their early stages are still a mystery. In this developing heart, from a zebrafish, muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) have squashed together like building blocks to form the smooth ventricle (red). Yet sometime between one and two weeks into development, cardiomyocytes in the atrium take a drastically different path – stretching out into a web of long thin, spindles. Brainbow technology ‘paints’ each cell in the webbed atrium a different colour, now they can be tracked through development. So, what does it mean that the ventricle and atrium develop in different ways? Well, examining the genes responsible might suggest new targets to tackle congenital defects in human hearts, or even guide the timing of in-utero surgical procedures to save newly beating hearts.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image/video from work by Matthew J. Foglia and colleagues
• Department of Cell Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
• Image/video copyright held by The Company of Biologists
• Published in Development, May 2016