Cardiac Development Long non-coding RNA (CARDEL) is activated during human heart development and contributes to cardiac specification and homeostasis

Abstract

SummarySuccessful heart development depends on the careful orchestration of a network of transcription factors and signaling pathways. In recent years, thein vitrocardiac differentiation using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has been used to uncover the intricate gene network regulation involved in the proper formation and function of the human heart. Here, we searched for uncharacterized cardiac developmental genes by combining a temporal evaluation of the human cardiac specificationin vitrowith the analysis of fetal and adult heart tissue gene expression. We discovered thatCARDEL(CARdiac DEvelopment Long non-coding RNA; LINC00890; SERTM2) expression coincides with the commitment to the cardiac lineage.CARDELknockout hPSCs differentiated poorly in cardiac cells, and hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes showed faster beating rates afterCARDELcontrolled overexpression during differentiation. Altogether, we demonstrate physiological and molecular evidence thatCARDELexpression contributes to sculpting the cardiac program during cell-fate commitment.