Zbtb16 determines the fate plasticity of cardiovascular progenitors through IGF2BP3-mediated mRNA stabilization

Cardiovascular progenitors (CPs) are responsible for generating diverse cardiac cell populations, exhibiting significant transcriptional heterogeneity. However, the mechanisms regulating fate plasticity among heterogeneous CP subpopulations remain poorly understood. Here, we characterize three CP subpopulations derived from pluripotent stem cells and find that deletion of the ZBTB family protein Zbtb16 disrupts the branching trajectory of Early-CPs, redirecting them toward CPs committed to endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts (EC/CF-CPs) rather than to cardiomyocytes (CM-CPs), which potentially leads to ventricular non-compaction and impaired cardiac function in mice. Mechanistically, Zbtb16 interacts with the N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) reader IGF2BP3 to post-transcriptionally recognize and stabilize mRNAs of key genes critical for CM-CP subpopulation determination. Collectively, our findings establish Zbtb16 as a key regulator of fate plasticity in heterogeneous CP subpopulations and reveal its interplay with IGF2BP3 to impact m⁶A-modified mRNA stabilization, providing insights into the intrinsic connections between CP subpopulation plasticity and cardiovascular multi-lineage fate determination.