Heart development: learning from mistakes

Congenital heart disease in humans results from abnormal morphogenesis of the embryonic cardiovascular system. The characterization of mutations affecting cardiovascular development in animal models ranging from flies to mice has identified many of the key signaling molecules and transcriptional regulators of heart formation. Many of these molecules are also mutated in familial forms of human congenital heart disease. Through the use of animal models combined with analysis of human pedigrees, a molecular framework that controls formation of the vertebrate heart is beginning to emerge.