Sinus venosus adaptation models prolonged cardiovascular disease and reveals insights into evolutionary transitions of the vertebrate heart

Abstract

How two-chambered hearts in basal vertebrates have evolved from single-chamber hearts found in ancestral chordates remains unclear. Here, we show that the teleost sinus venosus (SV) is a chamber-like vessel comprised of an outer layer of smooth muscle cells. We find that in adult zebrafish nr2f1a mutants, which lack atria, the SV comes to physically resemble the thicker bulbus arteriosus (BA) at the arterial pole of the heart through an adaptive, hypertensive response involving smooth muscle proliferation due to aberrant hemodynamic flow. Single cell transcriptomics show that smooth muscle and endothelial cell populations within the adapting SV also take on arterial signatures. Bulk transcriptomics of the blood sinuses flanking the tunicate heart reinforce a model of greater equivalency in ancestral chordate BA and SV precursors. Our data simultaneously reveal that secondary complications from congenital heart defects can develop in adult zebrafish similar to those in humans and that the foundation of equivalency between flanking auxiliary vessels may remain latent within basal vertebrate hearts.