Muscle connective tissue controls development of the diaphragm and is a source of congenital diaphragmatic hernias

Gabrielle Kardon and colleagues present a detailed study of diaphragm development in mice. They show that migration of connective tissue fibroblasts derived from the pleuroperitoneal folds controls diaphragm morphogenesis and that mosaic ablation of Gata4 in this cell population results in defects resembling human congenital diaphragmatic hernias.