Heart, Shaped

Ever wondered how your heart takes shape? Mechanical forces have a role to play, specifically, blood flow caused by the developing heart continuously beating. Researchers investigated the mechanisms behind this in developing zebrafish treated with a drug that stopped blood flow through the heart. Checking for differences in gene activity between treated and untreated zebrafish embryos, they found that the gene id2b was sensitive to blood flow. Genetically engineering zebrafish embryos with id2b tagged with green fluorescence revealed its location (pictured, green) in adults in the innermost layer of the heart (endocardium). Zebrafish embryos with faulty idb2 developed abnormal hearts and died early. These mutants had impaired heart contractions and faulty heart valves, causing blood to flow backwards. They also had disrupted cell signals in the middle layer of the heart (myocardium). idb2, therefore, shapes hearts through its role in the developing heart layers.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Shuo Chen and colleagues
• Center for Genetic Medicine, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), September 2024