GATA6 is essential for embryonic development of the liver but dispensable for early heart formation. Mol Cell Biol 2005 Apr;25(7):2622-31
Date
03/16/2005Pubmed ID
15767668Pubmed Central ID
PMC1061656DOI
10.1128/MCB.25.7.2622-2631.2005Scopus ID
2-s2.0-15044362819 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 201 CitationsAbstract
Several lines of evidence suggest that GATA6 has an integral role in controlling development of the mammalian liver. Unfortunately, this proposal has been impossible to address directly because mouse embryos lacking GATA6 die during gastrulation. Here we show that the early embryonic deficiency associated with GATA6-knockout mice can be overcome by providing GATA6-null embryos with a wild-type extraembryonic endoderm with the use of tetraploid embryo complementation. Analysis of rescued Gata6-/- embryos revealed that, although hepatic specification occurs normally, the specified cells fail to differentiate and the liver bud does not expand. Although GATA6 is expressed in multiple tissues that impact development of the liver, including the heart, septum transversum mesenchyme, and vasculature, all are relatively unaffected by loss of GATA6, which is consistent with a cell-autonomous requirement for GATA6 during hepatogenesis. We also demonstrate that a closely related GATA factor, GATA4, is expressed transiently in the prehepatic endoderm during hepatic specification and then lost during expansion of the hepatic primordium. Our data support the proposal that GATA4 and GATA6 are functionally redundant during hepatic specification but that GATA6 alone is available for liver bud growth and commitment of the endoderm to a hepatic cell fate.
Author List
Zhao R, Watt AJ, Li J, Luebke-Wheeler J, Morrisey EE, Duncan SAMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AnimalsDNA-Binding Proteins
Endoderm
GATA4 Transcription Factor
GATA6 Transcription Factor
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Heart
Liver
Mice
Mice, Knockout
Myocardium
Stem Cells
Time Factors
Transcription Factors
