ABSTRACT Mural cells (MCs) are essential for blood vessel stability and function; however, the mechanisms that regulate MC development remain incompletely understood, in particular those involved in MC specification. Here, we investigated the first steps of MC formation in zebrafish using transgenic reporters. Using pdgfrb and abcc9 reporters, we show that the onset of expression of abcc9 , a pericyte marker in adult mice and zebrafish, occurs almost coincidentally with an increment in pdgfrb expression in peri-arterial mesenchymal cells, suggesting that these transcriptional changes mark the specification of MC lineage cells from naïve pdgfrb low mesenchymal cells. The emergence of peri-arterial pdgfrb high MCs required Notch signaling. We found that pdgfrb -positive cells express notch2 in addition to notch3 , and although depletion of notch2 or notch3 failed to block MC emergence, embryos depleted of both notch2 and notch3 lost mesoderm- as well as neural crest-derived pdgfrb high MCs. Using reporters that read out Notch signaling and Notch2 receptor cleavage, we show that Notch activation in the mesenchyme precedes specification into pdgfrb high MCs. Taken together, these results show that Notch signaling is necessary for peri-arterial MC specification.

Mural cells (MCs) consisting of vascular smooth muscle cells and pericytes cover the endothelial cells (ECs) to regulate vascular stability and homeostasis. Here, we clarified the mechanism by which MCs develop and cover ECs by generating transgenic zebrafish lines that allow live imaging of MCs and by lineage tracing in vivo . To cover cranial vessels, MCs derived from either neural crest cells or mesoderm emerged around the preformed EC tubes, proliferated and migrated along EC tubes. During their migration, the MCs moved forward by extending their processes along the inter-EC junctions, suggesting a role for inter-EC junctions as a scaffold for MC migration. In the trunk vasculature, MCs derived from mesoderm covered the ventral side of the dorsal aorta (DA), but not the posterior cardinal vein. Furthermore, the MCs migrating from the DA or emerging around intersegmental vessels (ISVs) preferentially covered arterial ISVs rather than venous ISVs, indicating that MCs mostly cover arteries during vascular development. Thus, live imaging and lineage tracing enabled us to clarify precisely how MCs cover the EC tubes and to identify the origins of MCs.

β-catenin regulates the transcription of genes involved in diverse biological processes, including embryogenesis, tissue homeostasis and regeneration. Endothelial cell (EC)-specific gene-targeting analyses in mice have revealed that β-catenin is required for vascular development. However, the precise function of β-catenin-mediated gene regulation in vascular development is not well understood, since β-catenin regulates not only gene expression but also the formation of cell-cell junctions. To address this question, we have developed a novel transgenic zebrafish line that allows the visualization of β-catenin transcriptional activity specifically in ECs and discovered that β-catenin-dependent transcription is central to the bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp)-mediated formation of venous vessels. During caudal vein (CV) formation, Bmp induces the expression of aggf1 , a putative causative gene for Klippel–Trenaunay syndrome, which is characterized by venous malformation and hypertrophy of bones and soft tissues. Subsequently, Aggf1 potentiates β-catenin transcriptional activity by acting as a transcriptional co-factor, suggesting that Bmp evokes β-catenin-mediated gene expression through Aggf1 expression. Bmp-mediated activation of β-catenin induces the expression of Nr2f2 (also known as Coup-TFII), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, to promote the differentiation of venous ECs, thereby contributing to CV formation. Furthermore, β-catenin stimulated by Bmp promotes the survival of venous ECs, but not that of arterial ECs. Collectively, these results indicate that Bmp-induced activation of β-catenin through Aggf1 regulates CV development by promoting the Nr2f2-dependent differentiation of venous ECs and their survival. This study demonstrates, for the first time, a crucial role of β-catenin-mediated gene expression in the development of venous vessels.

Blood vessels and neurons grow often side by side. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying their parallel development remain unclear. Here, we report that a subpopulation of secondary motoneurons extends axons ventrally outside of the neural tubes and rostrocaudally as a fascicle beneath the dorsal aorta (DA) in zebrafish. We tried to clarify the mechanism by which these motoneuron axons grow beneath the DA and found that Vegfc in the DA and Vegfr3 in the motoneurons were essential for the axon growth. Forced expression of either Vegfc in arteries or Vegfr3 in motoneurons resulted in enhanced axon growth of motoneurons over the DA. Both vegfr3 morphants and vegfc morphants lost the alignment of motoneuron axons with DA. In addition, forced expression of two mutant forms of Vegfr3 in motoneurons, potentially trapping endogenous Vegfc, resulted in failure of growth of motoneuron axons beneath the DA. Finally, a vegfr3 mutant fish lacked the motoneuron axons beneath the DA. Collectively, Vegfc from the preformed DA guides the axon growth of secondary motoneurons.