Identification of cardiac hemo-vascular precursors and their requirement of sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 for heart development

The cardiac endothelium plays a crucial role in the development of a functional heart. However, the precise identification of the endocardial precursors and the mechanisms they require for their role in heart morphogenesis are not well understood. Using in vivo and in vitro cell fate tracing concomitant with specific cell ablation and embryonic heart transplantation studies, we identified a unique set of precursors which possess hemogenic functions and express the stem cell leukemia (SCL) gene driven by its 5′ enhancer. These hemo-vascular precursors give rise to the endocardium, atrioventricular cushions and coronary vascular endothelium. Furthermore, deletion of the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1P1) in these precursors leads to ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy, a poorly understood condition leading to heart failure and early mortality. Thus, we identified a distinctive population of hemo-vascular precursors which require S1P1 to exert their functions and are essential for cardiac morphogenesis.