| Seq #103 | Friday, April 4, 2008 | |||||||
| 11:30 AM-12:15 PM Hilton Anatole Hotel Stemmons Auditorium, Plenary | ||||||||
Genetic Control of Heart Development and Disease | ||||||||
Sponsored by: Plenary | ||||||||
| Description: Heart formation involves a precisely orchestrated series of morphologic and molecular events that, if perturbed even subtly, can have catastrophic consequences. Many of the transcription factors that control heart development also regulate remodeling of the adult heart in response to injury and stress-signaling. Mechanistic dissection of the transcriptional circuits that regulate cardiac gene expression has opened opportunities for genetic and pharmacological modification of cardiac function. We have discovered several signal-responsive and cell-type-restricted transcriptional co-activators and co-repressors that control cardiac development and remodeling. For example, the myocardin family of co-activators stimulates the activity of SRF, and CAMTA co-activates Nkx2-5, whereas Class II histone deacetylases (HDACs) function as signal-dependent repressors of MEF2. The functions of co-activators and co-repressors, as well as the involvement of specific microRNAs, in the control of cardiac gene expression during development and disease will be discussed. | ||||||||
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