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1996 Poster Competition Winners

Thirty-six out of the one hundred and thirty nine posters presented at this year's meeting were submitted and eligible for the Best Poster Competition. A panel of seven judges, consisting of four women and three men, representing most areas of developmental biology, viewed the posters, interviewed each author and met several times to discuss and select the winners. Posters were evaluated for their overall quality of presentation, content, scientific impact and author interview. The final decisions of the judges represent unanimous choices for each category.
Partial financial support for the Poster Competition was provided by PharMingen, San Diego, CA.

First Place

Steven Wang, Fred J. Griffin and Wallis H. Clark, Jr.. Center for Structural Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. "Induction of the Cephalic Segments by the Mesendoderm Cells in the Embryo of the Marine Shrimp Sicyonia ingentis."
In this classical study, Steven utilized blastomere isolation and recombination to characterize the role of the mesendoderm cells in the induction of the three head segments which form in this early embryo. With this as a foundation, he then proceeded to explore this induction. Adding mesendoderm cells to non-mesendoderm blastulae resulted in the rescue of segmentation through cell contact alone and in a planar fashion, as grafted blastomeres did not migrate within or become incorporated into their host. Moreover, a window of inductive competence was shown to exist for the non-mesendoderm blastulae and that the mesendoderm cells retained their ability to induce segmentation beyond the host's ability to respond. The judges unanimously felt that this work was professionally presented, a joy to view and logically written. In addition, this work has created a foundation from which many experiments may now be done to further clarify the inductive signals and events in this system.
The First Place winner receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and the airfare for the trip to England to present his work at the British Society for Developmental Biology Annual Meeting. The British SDB will host Steven as part of the exchange program between our societies.

Second Place

Martin F. Offield, Jetton, T.L., Labosky, P., Ray, M., Stein, R., Magnuson, M., Hogan, B.L.M., and Wright, C.V.E. Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University, School of Medicine, Nashville, TN. "PDX-1 is Required for the Development and Differentiation of the Pancreas and Rosteral Duodenum."
In this striking poster the powerful role of homeobox genes in development is demonstrated. Here the homologue for XlHbox 8, pdx-1, was investigated using gene targeting to generate two independent null mutations in the mouse. Examination of homozygous null mutants revealed a complete absence of the pancreas in addition to malformations of the rostral duodenum. This result was supported by a lack of immunostaining for markers of pancreatic cells and modifications or absence of normal gut epithelial lining, villi and Brunner's glands. A second null allele utilizing a lacZ reporter was phenotypically identical to the first null mutant and revealed that pdx-1/bgal expression is first seen in both +/- and -/- mutants at the 8.0 dpc in the left ventral endoderm at the anterior intestinal portal. This result suggests that pdx-1 functions in reorganization of the posterior foregut and directs the differentiation of both pancreatic and duodenal derivatives in this region. The judges were most impressed by the author's breadth of knowledge in addition to his extensive contribution to this body of work. The Second Place winner receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and a cash prize of one hundred dollars.

Third Place

Gabrielle Kardon, Zoology, Duke University. "A Role for Tendons in Specifying Muscle Pattern?"
This represents a continuation of the work Gabrielle presented just eight months earlier, at the annual SDB meeting in San Diego, where her stunning work received an honorable mention. Previously, Gabrielle showed utilizing whole mount immunofluorescence that muscle and tendon morphogenesis occur in contact and in tandem during normal development. Her current work now demonstrates that the tendons of muscleless limbs when grafted into the coelomic cavity undergo normal temporal and spatial patterning in the absence of muscle. Her results suggest that the autonomous development of tendon may specify muscle pattern and she has some intriguing ideas about how tendon pattern may be established in these limbs. Gabrielle receives a one-year subscription to Developmental Biology and a copy of the video "A dozen eggs" by Rachel Fink.

Honorable Mention

Vida Praitis, Caroline McKeown, Alpa Patel and Judith Austin. Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. University of Chicago, IL. "sma-1 is Required for Morphogenesis of the C. elegans embryo."
In this study, the role of cortical actin microfilament reorganization during embryo elongation was investigated. Abnormal elongation in the sma-1 mutant was shown to correlate with abnormal microfilament organization and was rescued by injection of an 11 kb genomic fragment. Characterization of the fragment suggests similarities to Drosophila ßH-Spectrin. Currently, the expression of this gene in larvae and adults via Northern blot and in situ analysis is being characterized. Vida received a copy of Klaus Kalthoff's latest edition of Analysis of Biological Development.

David M. Parichy, Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California at Davis. "Metamorphosis of the Pigment Pattern in the Salamander Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum"
This work continues investigations which revealed a relationship between neural crest derived pigment cells and the developing lateral line sensory system. Previously, David had shown that ablation of cranial lateral line placodes resulted in the loss of horizontal pigment stripes on the flanks of larvae. In this study, he followed these animals through metamorphosis and adult pigmentation. His results revealed that post-metamorphic patterns of pigmentation were not affected by ablation of the lateral line suggesting that metamorphosis decouples larval and adult pigment patterns. The judges were impressed by the clear and memorable message of this poster. David received a copy of Scott Gilbert's latest edition of Developmental Biology.

Tammy F. Wu, Stephen C. Ekker, Philip A. Beachy and Marnie E. Halpern. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, MD. "Segregation of Hedgehog Gene Expression During Zebrafish Gastrulation"
In this study, Tammy investigated the temporal and spatial expression of two hedgehog related genes, sonic and tiggy winkle, in addition to the gene no tail, via in situ hybridization. Her results revealed that while all three genes are expressed in single cells of the dorsal shield in early gastrulae, in older gastrulae tiggy winkle and sonic hedgehog become segregated into distinct cell layers. Sonic becomes localized along with no tail expression into axial mesoderm which gives rise to notochord, while tiggy winkle transcripts are found exclusively in overlying cells. It is hyothesized that these cells may define a population of cells that are precursors to the future floor plate. Interestingly, segregation of gene expression for tiggy winkle and sonic was disrupted in no tail mutants which fail to form notochord. Besides her beautiful in situ hybridization work, the judges were impressed by her organization, humor and thoughtful questions. For example: What is a germ layer? Tammy received a copy of Klaus Kalthoff's latest edition of Analysis of Biological Development.

Reported by Karen Crawford


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