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Molecular and Cellular Biology, April 2005, p. 2622-2631, Vol. 25, No. 7
0270-7306/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MCB.25.7.2622-2631.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

GATA6 Is Essential for Embryonic Development of the Liver but Dispensable for Early Heart Formation

Roong Zhao,1 Alistair J. Watt,1 Jixuan Li,1 Jennifer Luebke-Wheeler,1 Edward E. Morrisey,2 and Stephen A. Duncan1*

Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ,1 Department of Medicine, Molecular Cardiology Research Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania2

Received 5 December 2004/ Returned for modification 25 December 2004/ Accepted 29 December 2004

Several lines of evidence suggest that GATA6 has an integral role in controlling development of the mammalian liver. Unfortunately, this proposal has been impossible to address directly because mouse embryos lacking GATA6 die during gastrulation. Here we show that the early embryonic deficiency associated with GATA6-knockout mice can be overcome by providing GATA6-null embryos with a wild-type extraembryonic endoderm with the use of tetraploid embryo complementation. Analysis of rescued Gata6–/– embryos revealed that, although hepatic specification occurs normally, the specified cells fail to differentiate and the liver bud does not expand. Although GATA6 is expressed in multiple tissues that impact development of the liver, including the heart, septum transversum mesenchyme, and vasculature, all are relatively unaffected by loss of GATA6, which is consistent with a cell-autonomous requirement for GATA6 during hepatogenesis. We also demonstrate that a closely related GATA factor, GATA4, is expressed transiently in the prehepatic endoderm during hepatic specification and then lost during expansion of the hepatic primordium. Our data support the proposal that GATA4 and GATA6 are functionally redundant during hepatic specification but that GATA6 alone is available for liver bud growth and commitment of the endoderm to a hepatic cell fate.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53226. Phone: (414) 456-8602. Fax: (414) 456-6517. E-mail: duncans{at}mcw.edu.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, April 2005, p. 2622-2631, Vol. 25, No. 7
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MCB.25.7.2622-2631.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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