Advanced search×

The blood/vascular system in a phylogenetic perspective.

Volker V Hartenstein and Lolitika L Mandal

Bioessays 28(12):1203-10 (2006) PMID 17120194

The genetically and experimentally accessible organs of Drosophila, such as the heart or blood-forming tissues, have become a fertile ground for systematic projects of gene discovery and for functional studies of gene networks and signaling pathways. One argument justifying this approach is the often-tacit assumption that clear-cut homologies can be established between the Drosophila organs and their vertebrate counterparts. Here we investigate this assumption by surveying pertinent aspects of vascular structure and development in different invertebrate phyla, in the hope that this information will help to reveal the ancestral condition of the vascular system. Evolutionary scenarios that derive the structure of the cardiovascular system of extant animal taxa from the ancestral condition will be used to qualify hypotheses regarding homologies that are based on molecular similarities.

DOI: 10.1002/bies.20497
Version: za2963e q8za0 q8zbe q8zc4 q8zdb q8ze2 q8zf0 q8zg8

Similar articles you may find interesting…

  1. Role of FGFR signaling in the morphogenesis of the Drosophila visceral musculature.
    Lolitika L Mandal, Karin K Dumstrei, and Volker V Hartenstein

    Dev Dyn 231(2):342-8 (2004) PMID 15366011

    We report in this study that the longitudinal visceral muscle founder cells (LVMFs), a population of cells that migrate along the midgut primordium and visceral mesoderm, require the function of the Drosophila fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) homolog, Heartless (Htl). Htl is expressed in LVM...
  2. Evidence for a fruit fly hemangioblast and similarities between lymph-gland hematopoiesis in fruit fly and mammal aorta-gonadal-mesonephros ...
    Lolitika L Mandal, Utpal U Banerjee, and Volker V Hartenstein

    Nat Genet 36(9):1019-23 (2004) PMID 15286786

    We show that an essential genetic switch that differentiates between the blood or nephrocyte and vascular lineages involves the Notch pathway. Further specification occurs through specific expression of the GATA factor Serpent (Srp) in the lymph-gland primordium. Our findings suggest that there is a...
  3. Cryopreserved Arterial Allograft Reconstruction After Excision of Thoracic Malignancies
    Abel Gómez-Caro, Elisabeth Martinez, ... Paolo Macchiarini

    Ann Thorac Surg 86(6):9 (2008) PMID 19021970

    Revascularization of intrathoracic venous and arterial vessels in patients with malignancies using HLA- and ABO-mismatched CAA is technically feasible and clinically attractive because of no infection risk and postoperative anticoagulation, and excellent long-term survival, patency, and nonimmunogen...