ENDODERM AND CARDIOGENESIS - NEW INSIGHTS

Classic studies of vertebrate heart development have implicated the en doderm in an inductive role, based on its ability to induce rhythmic b eating in explants of presumptive heart mesoderm. Recent experiments, aided by the use of heart-specific molecular markers, have defined dis crete phases of cardiogenesis that depend on endodermal signals for fu nctional contractility. In addition, the ability of the endoderm to ge nerate a beating heart from tissues fated to form other cell types sug gests that endoderm may also be involved in the initial specification of the early heart field. (C) 1996, Elsevier Science Inc.