A Drosophila model for congenital heart disease

Congenital heart disease (CHD) represents a major cause for perinatal death and childhood morbidity. Understanding the molecular-genetic basis of CHD is therefore crucial for improved prenatal diagnosis and optimal therapeutic strategies. The power of Drosophila genetics has been utilized in recent years to identify new factors involved in human disease in general and CHD in particular. This review summarizes current approaches that aim to dissect models of CHD using classical genetics together with a multitude of newly developed methods for cardiac analysis in the fruit fly Drosophila.

Section editor:Gabriel Haddad – Pediatrics Department, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA