Archan Chakraborty, Nora G Peterson, Juliet S King, Ryan T Gross, Michelle Mendiola Pla, Aatish Thennavan, Kevin C Zhou, Sophia DeLuca, Nenad Bursac, Dawn E Bowles, Matthew J Wolf, Donald T Fox
Developmentally programmed polyploidy (whole-genome-duplication) of cardiomyocytes is common across evolution. Functions of such polyploidy are essentially unknown. Here, in both Drosophila larvae and human organ donors, we reveal distinct polyploidy levels in cardiac organ chambers. In Drosophila, differential growth and cell cycle signal sensitivity leads the heart chamber to reach a higher ploidy/cell size relative to the aorta chamber. Cardiac ploidy-reduced animals exhibit reduced heart chamber size, stroke volume, cardiac output, and acceleration of circulating hemocytes...
August 1, 2023: Development