Early heart morphogenesis involves a process in which embryonic precursor cells are instructed to form a cyclic contracting muscle tube connected to blood vessels, pumping fluid. Subsequently, the heart becomes structurally complex and its size increases several orders of magnitude to functionally keep up with the demands of the growing organism. Programmed transcriptional regulatory networks control the early steps of cardiac development. However, already during the early stages of its assembly, the heart tube starts to produce electrochemical potentials, contractions, and flow, which are transduced into signals that feed back into the process of morphogenesis itself. Heart morphogenesis, thus, involves the interplay between progressively changing genetic networks, function, and shape. Morphogenesis is evolutionarily conserved, but species-specific differences occur and in mouse, for instance, distinct phases of development become overlapping and compounded in an extremely fast gestation. Here, we review the early morphogenesis of the chambered heart that maintains a circulation supporting development of an organism rapidly growing in size and requirements.

中文翻译：

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心脏形态发生：四腔心的规格。

早期心脏形态发生涉及一个过程，其中胚胎前体细胞被指示形成与血管相连的循环收缩肌肉管，泵送液体。随后，心脏的结构变得复杂，其大小增加了几个数量级，以在功能上跟上不断增长的有机体的需求。程序化的转录调控网络控制着心脏发育的早期步骤。然而，在其组装的早期阶段，心管已经开始产生电化学电位、收缩和流动，这些被转化为反馈到形态发生过程本身的信号。因此，心脏形态发生涉及逐渐变化的遗传网络、功能和形状之间的相互作用。形态发生在进化上是保守的，但是会出现物种特异性差异，例如，在小鼠中，不同的发育阶段在极快的妊娠中变得重叠和复合。在这里，我们回顾了有腔心脏的早期形态发生，它维持循环支持生物体的大小和需求迅速增长。