Students from our undergraduate Fundamental Vertebrate Embryology course attended the annual New England Society for Developmental Biology conference held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in April and presented their research on two posters. The graduate students and researchers at the meeting were impressed by the quality of the work and presentation by our teams. Professor Alfandari was invited to give the opening presentation concerning the research from his lab at the meeting.
Abstract ID #10364 - Heterotopic grafts of embryonoic tissues at various stages of Xenopus laevis embryos
Angelina Idzal, Elizabeth Heyward, Shaleigh Levesque, Jessica Price, Emma Mayer, Abe Tefal, Jiratchaya Thanayangyuen, Dominique Alfandari, Hélène Cousin
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Veterinary and Animal Sciences Department, USA
The key "classical" experiments performed by Dr.s Nieukoop, Spemann, and others have defined inductive centers in the early gatula of the amphibian embryo. In th class, we have repeated and expanded upon these experiments. During our class Fundamental Vertebrate Embryology, we are exploring the concepts of tissue specification, determination, inductio, and organizer by performing heterotopic, homochronic grafts of various presumptive territories: optic, otic pronephric, and cardiac. We also performed the historical grafts of of dorsal blastopore lips into the ventral side of an embryo historically performed by Hilde Mangold and Hans Spemann over a century ago. Using lineage tracer and tissue markers, we explored what part of the organs directly derive from the transplants and what tissues are contributed by the host. Funding: HC and DA are supported by grants for the National Institute of Health (RO1DE012689 and R240OD021485). Students’ registration and housing were funded by the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Abstract ID #10363, Molecular analysis of Xenopus embryonic tissue recombination
Caitlyn Child, MacKenzie Hasty-Groves, Dominique Alfandari, Hélène Cousin
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Veterinary and Animal Sciences Department, USA
We have preformed a “classical” embryology experiment to test tissue induction in Xenopus embryos. Gastrula stage embryos were dissected into Animal Cap (Naïve ectoderm), Dorsal Lip, Dorsal endoderm, and Ventral endoderm. The dissected tissues were grown in vitro either alone or recombined for 72 hours until the control embryos reached tailbud stages (Stage 24). Proteins were then extracted and analyzed by capillary western blotting and Tandem Mass spectrometry. Proteins uniques to the extract from Dorsal lip recombined with Animal cap were identified using Scafold5 and further analyzed using the String protein software to identify enriched pathwyas. Examples of proteins with interesting expression profiles are presented. Funding: HC and DA are supported by grants for the National Institute of Health (RO1DE012689 and R240OD021485). Students’ registration and housing were funded by the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.