Abstract 283: Nppa Marks A Subset Of Embryonic Cardiomyocytes Predestined To Form Trabeculae In Zebrafish

The development and maintenance of cardiac trabeculae is required for proper ventricular function. Aberrant trabeculation can cause heart failure, arrhythmia, and death. Yet the mechanisms controlling initiation of trabeculation are incompletely understood, partly due to a lack of markers for trabeculation during early embryogenesis. We hypothesized that natriuretic peptide A (nppa) marks trabeculae before cardiomyocytes leave the single-celled ventricular layer. While nppa has been studied in mammals, the external development of the translucent zebrafish embryo offers new insight into the earliest stages of trabeculation. We have found by in situ hybridization, and by creating a fluorescent transgenic zebrafish line, that nppa exclusively marks zebrafish cardiac trabeculae from their onset through adulthood. Live spinning disc confocal video microscopy shows that nppa:GFP-positive cells move into the trabecular layer starting at 60 hours post fertilization (hpf). GFP-positive trabeculae are seen by 5 days post fertilization (dpf) in normal larvae. However, in cardiac troponin T2a mutants and in erbB2 mutants _ both known not to trabeculate _ nppa is still expressed, but the nppa:GFP positive cells fail to form trabecular projections. In embryos injected with a morpholino against atrial myosin heavy chain 6, where weakened atrial contraction leads to weaker blood flow without affecting the ventricle directly, GFP-positive cells form trabeculae similar to uninjected controls. Using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs), we created nppa mutants causing frameshift deletions. Mutants have poorly contractile hearts at 3 dpf and have been crossed into transgenic reporter lines in order to specifically assess trabeculation. Together, these data suggest that nppa marks a subset of embryonic cardiomyocytes destined to form trabeculae, and that nppa loss of function causes cardiac defects.