Fish Heart Growth and Function: From Gross Morphology to Cell Signaling and Back

Comparative multidisciplinary efforts greatly contributed to unravel the interrelationship between heart structure and function at the molecular level. They include studies on the developing and adult fish heart, which provide necessary insights to identify functional properties residing in the cardiomyocytes from those resulting from complex interactions between the other tissues and cells of the organ and how they integrate. Although analysis from complex to simple is easier than synthesis, we will illustrate some fish paradigms hoping to furnish eventual bridges between whole-organ and cellular levels.