Title: Caudal transcription factors in hematopoietic development
Description: During embryogenesis, hematopoietic cells arise from the lateral plate mesoderm (LPM) following gastrulation. The transcriptional program required for this LPM to blood switch is not fully understood. Previous work on a zebrafish mutant with a deletion in the cdx4 gene demonstrated the importance of this caudal transcription factor in the LPM to blood transition. To explain how cdx4 regulates embryonic hematopoiesis, two main approaches were taken in this thesis.