Cardiopharyngeal mesoderm origins of musculoskeletal and connective tissues in the mammalian pharynx

Noritaka Adachi (1) , Marchesa Bilio (2) , Antonio Baldini (3) , Robert G Kelly (1)

1 IBDM - Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille
2 Institute of Genetics and Biophysics 'Adriano Buzzati-Traverso'
3 IGB - Institute of Genetics and Biophysics Adriano Buzzati-Traverso

Cardiopharyngeal mesoderm (CPM) gives rise to muscles of the head and heart. Using genetic lineage analysis in mice, we show that CPM develops into a broad range of pharyngeal structures and cell types encompassing musculoskeletal and connective tissues. We demonstrate that CPM contributes to medial pharyngeal skeletal and connective tissues associated with both branchiomeric and somitederived neck muscles. CPM and neural crest cells (NCC) make complementary mediolateral contributions to pharyngeal structures, in a distribution established in the early embryo. We further show that biallelic expression of the CPM regulatory gene Tbx1, haploinsufficient in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome patients, is required for the correct patterning of muscles with CPM-derived connective tissue. Our results suggest that CPM plays a patterning role during muscle development, similar to that of NCC during craniofacial myogenesis. The broad lineage contributions of CPM to pharyngeal structures provide new insights into congenital disorders and evolution of the mammalian pharynx.

Keywords: CPM; Neural crest cells; Pharyngeal arch; Pharynx; Tbx1; 22q11.2 deletion syndrome; Mouse

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Noritaka Adachi, Marchesa Bilio, Antonio Baldini, Robert G Kelly. Cardiopharyngeal mesoderm origins of musculoskeletal and connective tissues in the mammalian pharynx. Development (Cambridge, England), 2020, 147 (3), pp.dev185256. ⟨10.1242/dev.185256⟩. ⟨hal-03142010⟩