Hox/Meis-dependent gene-regulatory transition underlies cardiopharyngeal neural crest diversification.

Hox/Meis-dependent gene regulation drives neural crest cell fate transitions in mouse cardiopharyngeal development, with significant implications for heart and valve formation.

• Why it matters: Understanding how neural crest cells diversify during heart development is crucial for addressing congenital heart defects and vascular diseases, yet the gene regulatory mechanisms remain poorly defined.
• What they did: Using single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and multiomic analyses, the study mapped neural crest lineages and identified a transition from Hox-positive to Hox-negative populations, involving shifts in Meis transcription factor activity.
• The result: The research reveals that loss of Hox identity enables neural crest cells to adopt new fates in the cardiac cushion, advancing knowledge of coronary and valvular development and potential disease origins.