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First published online 6 February 2008
doi: 10.1242/dev.015321

Development 135, 1029-1037 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
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Wnt3a-mediated chemorepulsion controls movement patterns of cardiac progenitors and requires RhoA function

Qiaoyun Yue1, Laura Wagstaff1,*, Xuesong Yang2,{dagger}, Cornelis Weijer2 and Andrea Münsterberg1,{ddagger}

1 School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
2 College of Life Sciences Biocentre, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, UK.

{ddagger} Author for correspondence (e-mail: a.munsterberg{at}uea.ac.uk)

Accepted 24 December 2007

The heart is the first organ to function during vertebrate development and cardiac progenitors are among the first cell lineages to be established. In the chick, cardiac progenitors have been mapped in the epiblast of pre-streak embryos, and in the early gastrula they are located in the mid-primitive streak, from which they enter the mesoderm bilaterally. Signals controlling the specification of cardiac cells have been well documented; however, migration routes of cardiac progenitors have not been directly observed within the embryo and the factor(s) controlling their movement are not known. In addition, it is not clear how cell movement is coordinated with cell specification in the early embryo. Here we use live imaging to show that cardiac progenitors migrate in highly directed trajectories, which can be controlled by Wnt3a. Ectopic Wnt3a altered movement trajectories and caused cardia bifida. This was rescued by electroporation of dominant-negative DN-Wnt3a into prospective cardiac cells. Explant essays and mutant analysis showed that cellular guidance involved repulsion in response to Wnt3a and required RhoA function. It has been shown that Wnt3a inhibits cardiogenic cell specification through a β-catenin-dependent pathway. On the basis of our results, we propose that Wnt3a concomitantly guides the movement of cardiac progenitors by a novel mechanism involving RhoA-dependent chemorepulsion.

Key words: Wnt signalling, Cell migration, Chemorepulsion, Cardiac progenitors, Chick






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2008