Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

A common progenitor for haematopoietic and endothelial lineages in the zebrafish gastrula

Nature volume 443, pages 337–339 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

It has been proposed that haematopoietic and endothelial cells share a common progenitor, termed the haemangioblast. This idea was initially conceived as a result of the observation that these two cell types develop in close proximity to each other within the embryo1,2. Support for this hypothesis was provided by studies on single-cell-derived colonies that can produce both haematopoietic and endothelial cells in vitro3,4,5,6,7. Although these data point towards the existence of a common progenitor for these two lineages, the presence of a bipotential progenitor cell has yet to be demonstrated in vivo. Through the construction of single-cell-resolution fate maps of the zebrafish late blastula and gastrula, we demonstrate that individual cells can give rise to both haematopoietic and endothelial cells. These bipotential progenitors arise along the entire extent of the ventral mesoderm and contribute solely to haematopoietic and endothelial cells. We also find that only a subset of haematopoietic and endothelial cells arise from haemangioblasts. The endothelial descendants of the haemangioblasts all clustered in a specific region of the axial vessels regardless of the location of their progenitors. Our results provide in vivo evidence supporting the existence of the haemangioblast and reveal distinct features of this cell population.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Single cells at shield stage give rise to only blood and endothelial cells.
Figure 2: Single-cell-resolution fate map at shield stage.
Figure 3: Single-cell-resolution fate map at 40% epiboly.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sabin, F. Preliminary note on the differentiation of angioblasts and the method by which they produce blood-vessels, blood-plasma and red blood-cells as seen in the living chick. Anat. Rec. 13, 199–204 (1917)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Murray, P. D. F. The development in vitro of the blood of the early chick embryo. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 11, 497–521 (1932)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Choi, K., Kennedy, M., Kazarov, A., Papadimitriou, J. C. & Keller, G. A common precursor for hematopoietic and endothelial cells. Development 125, 725–732 (1998)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Schuh, A. C., Faloon, P., Hu, Q. L., Bhimani, M. & Choi, K. In vitro hematopoietic and endothelial potential of flk-1-/- embryonic stem cells and embryos. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 96, 2159–2164 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Fehling, H. J. et al. Tracking mesoderm induction and its specification to the hemangioblast during embryonic stem cell differentiation. Development 130, 4217–4227 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Huber, T. L., Kouskoff, V., Fehling, H. J., Palis, J. & Keller, G. Haemangioblast commitment is initiated in the primitive streak of the mouse embryo. Nature 432, 625–630 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. D'Souza, S. L., Elefanty, A. G. & Keller, G. SCL/Tal-1 is essential for hematopoietic commitment of the hemangioblast but not for its development. Blood 105, 3862–3870 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kimmel, C. B., Warga, R. M. & Schilling, T. F. Origin and organization of the zebrafish fate map. Development 108, 581–594 (1990)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Warga, R. M. & Nusslein-Volhard, C. Origin and development of the zebrafish endoderm. Development 126, 827–838 (1999)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Kinder, S. J. et al. The orderly allocation of mesodermal cells to the extraembryonic structures and the anteroposterior axis during gastrulation of the mouse embryo. Development 126, 4691–4701 (1999)

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Parker, L. H., Zon, L. & Stainier, D. Y. R. in Methods in Cell Biology, The Zebrafish (eds Detrich, W., Zon, L. & Westerfield, M.) 313–336 (Academic, San Diego, California, 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gering, M. & Patient, R. Hedgehog signaling is required for adult blood stem cell formation in zebrafish embryos. Dev. Cell 8, 389–400 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Westerfield, M. The Zebrafish Book (Univ. of Oregon Press, Eugene, Oregon, 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Jin, S. W., Beis, D., Mitchell, T., Chen, J. N. & Stainier, D. Y. Cellular and molecular analyses of vascular tube and lumen formation in zebrafish. Development 132, 5199–5209 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Traver, D. et al. Transplantation and in vivo imaging of multilineage engraftment in zebrafish bloodless mutants. Nature Immunol. 4, 1238–1246 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Horne-Badovinac, S., Rebagliati, M. & Stainier, D. Y. A cellular framework for gut-looping morphogenesis in zebrafish. Science 302, 662–665 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kozlowski, D. J., Murakami, T., Ho, R. K. & Weinberg, E. S. Regional cell movement and tissue patterning in the zebrafish embryo revealed by fate mapping with caged fluorescein. Biochem. Cell Biol. 75, 551–562 (1997)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Keegan, B. R., Meyer, D. & Yelon, D. Organization of cardiac chamber progenitors in the zebrafish blastula. Development 131, 3081–3091 (2004)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Stainier and Martin laboratories for discussion and critical reading of the manuscript; D. Traver and L. Zon for the Tg(gata1:DsRed) line; and D. Yelon for advice with caged fluorescein. This study was supported by an NSF Pre-doctoral Fellowship (K.M.V.); an American Heart Association Post-doctoral Fellowship (S.-W.J.); the Packard foundation (D.Y.R.S.); and the National Institutes of Health (G.R.M. and D.Y.R.S.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Suk-Won Jin

    Present address: Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology and the Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 103 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, USA

  2. Kevin M. Vogeli and Suk-Won Jin: *These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics,

    Kevin M. Vogeli, Suk-Won Jin & Didier Y. R. Stainier

  2. Department of Anatomy,

    Kevin M. Vogeli & Gail R. Martin

  3. Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, 1550 Fourth Street, California, 94158-2324, USA

    Kevin M. Vogeli, Suk-Won Jin, Gail R. Martin & Didier Y. R. Stainier

Authors
  1. Kevin M. Vogeli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Suk-Won Jin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gail R. Martin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Didier Y. R. Stainier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Didier Y. R. Stainier.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vogeli, K., Jin, SW., Martin, G. et al. A common progenitor for haematopoietic and endothelial lineages in the zebrafish gastrula. Nature 443, 337–339 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05045

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05045

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing