Heart development in normal and cardiac-lethal mutant axolotls: a model for the control of vertebrate cardiogenesis

SC Smith, JB Armstrong - Differentiation, 1991 - Elsevier
The mechanisms which regulate myocardial differentiation are poorly understood. The
cardiac-lethal (c) mutant of Ambystoma mexicanum, in which the heart never begins to beat,
provides a valuable model system for studying this process. Using an in vitro assay, we
examine the nature of the defect in c/c embryos and find (contrary to previous reports) that
the inductive endoderm is not affected by the mutation. Rather, the pre-cardiac mesoderm is
directly affected by the c gene and is incapable of responding to normal inductive influences …