Toward an understanding of the genetics of murine cardiac pacemaking and conduction system development

We distinguish the cardiac pacemaking and conduction system (CPCS) from neighboring working cardiomyocytes by its function to generate and deliver electrical impulses within the heart. Yet the CPCS is a series of integrated but distinct components. The components must act in a coordinated fashion, but they are also functionally, molecularly, and electrophysiologically unique. Understanding the differentiation and function of this elegant and complex system is an exciting challenge. Knowledge of genes and signaling pathways that direct CPCS development is at present minimal, but the use of transgenic mice represents an enormous opportunity for elucidating the unknown. Transgenic marker lines have enabled us to image and manipulate the CPCS in new ways. These tools are now being used to examine the CPCS in mutants where its formation and function is altered, generating new information and directions for study of the genetics of CPCS development.