Forward genetics: identifying novel genes important for cardiovascular development
The ENU-induced mutant, refuse-to-fuse (ref) was found in a forward genetic screen for cardiac defects. ref was found to be a mutation in pdgfra leading to the identification of PDGF signaling as being important for cardiac fusion. For more information see Bloomekatz et al. 2017.
Quantitative live-imaging
Quantitative tracking of cardiomyocyte movement (Purple-to-Red) in wildtype and ref mutant embryos allows for the dissection of different properties of movement