Here are the highlights from the current issue of Development:

Haematopoiesis to knock your SOX7 off

During vertebrate development, haematopoietic and endothelial cells emerge from a common mesodermal progenitor, the haemangioblast. Upon haematopoietic commitment, the haemangioblast generates blood precursors through populations of endothelial cells with haemogenic properties, but what regulates the generation of haemogenic endothelium? Here (p. 1587), Valerie Kouskoff and colleagues use mouse embryonic stem cells to investigate the role of the transcription factor SOX7 in haemangioblast differentiation. The researchers report that, within blast colonies (which recapitulate early haematopoietic development in vitro), SOX7 is expressed in haemogenic endothelium cells and is downregulated in nascent blood precursors. Enforced expression of Sox7 in blast colonies, they report, blocks haematopoietic differentiation and sustains the expression of endothelial markers. They also show that SOX7 binds and activates the promoter of VE-cadherin, an adhesion molecule that is expressed in haemogenic endothelial cells but downregulated during blood cell formation. Together, these results identify SOX7 as a transcriptional regulator of genes expressed in the haemogenic endothelium and provide new insights into early embryonic haematopoiesis.

A novel photo-morpholino on/off switch for genes

To investigate the molecular mechanisms of development, it is useful to be able to turn genes both on and off in a spatially restricted manner. Although the development of photo-activated morpholino oligonucleotides (photo-MOs) has made it possible to turn genes off at specific times and places, finding a way to deactivate MOs and restart gene expression has proved more elusive. Here (p.1691), Alexandra Tallafuss, Philip Washbourne and colleagues describe an approach in which they can turn genes off and on using sense photo-MOs (S-photo-MOs) and complementary antisense photo-MOs (AS-photo-MOs), respectively. S-photo-MOs bind to and block the activity of regular morpholinos, and exposure of the S-photo-MOs to UV light allows the morpholinos to become active and block gene expression; AS-photo-MOs block gene function like regular morpholinos, but normal gene function can be restored by light inactivation. Importantly, the researchers demonstrate the feasibility of their new approach in whole zebrafish embryos by studying notochord induction and neural crest development, and in single cells by temporally manipulating Gal4 transgene expression.

See also the authors’ post about this paper on the Node.

Endoderm tugs at heart strings

During vertebrate heart development, cardiac progenitors form bilateral fields within the lateral plate mesoderm that move towards the embryonic midline and fuse to form the heart tube. It is generally accepted that, during this process, in addition to its inductive signalling role, the endoderm serves as a mechanically passive substrate for the migrating cardiogenic mesoderm. Now, Victor Varner and Larry Taber suggest that the endoderm also has an active mechanical role during heart tube assembly (see p. 1680). Using label-tracking experiments in combination with actomyosin inhibitors, the researchers show that, in chick embryos, the endoderm actively shortens around the anterior intestinal portal, and that myosin-II-dependent contraction drives this shortening. Inhibition of contractility using actomyosin inhibitors, they report, produces cardia bifida and foregut defects. Moreover, computational modelling suggests that the endoderm (not the mesoderm) is the dominant contractile tissue layer during heart field migration. Thus, the researchers suggest, during avian cardiogenesis, active contraction of the endoderm pulls the heart fields towards the embryonic midline.

Notch tunes pancreatic endocrine progenitor behaviour

During pancreatic development in mammals and zebrafish, Notch-responsive cells (NRCs) give rise to endocrine cells, but how does Notch signalling regulate the proliferation and differentiation of pancreatic progenitors at the single-cell level? On p. 1557, Nikolay Ninov and co-workers use live imaging and a novel transgenic reporter system that allows the dynamic assessment of Notch signalling to answer this question in zebrafish larvae. The researchers show that zebrafish NRCs exhibit different levels of Notch signalling that, in turn, regulate distinct cellular outcomes. Specifically, high levels of Notch signalling induce quiescence, lower levels promote progenitor amplification, and sustained downregulation of Notch signalling triggers a multistep process that includes cell-cycle entry and amplification followed by endocrine differentiation. Importantly, the researchers show that progenitor amplification and differentiation can be uncoupled by modulating the duration and/or level of Notch signalling downregulation. Thus, different levels of Notch signalling drive distinct behaviours in pancreatic endocrine precursors, a finding that could inform the development of regenerative therapies for type 1 diabetes.

Apical domain size matters for neurogenesis

Early in retinal development, neuroepithelial progenitor cells begin to divide in a neurogenic mode in which at least one daughter cell exits the cell cycle and differentiates into a neuron. Now, on p. 1599, Brian Link and colleagues investigate the cell biological mechanisms that influence neurogenesis by analysing zebrafish and mouse retinal neuroepithelia deficient for Llgl1 (lethal giant larval protein homologue 1), a protein that is implicated in apicobasal polarity, asymmetric division, cell shape and cell-cycle exit. The researchers show that Llgl1-deficient neuroepithelia retain apicobasal polarity but have expanded apical domains. Importantly, Llgl1-deficient neuroepithelia display increased Notch activity and reduced neurogenesis. Expansion of the apical domain through inhibition of Shroom3 also increases Notch activity and reduces neurogenesis. These results, together with studies of interkinetic nuclear migration (the apical-to-basal movement of neuroepithelial nuclei that is linked with cell-cycle exit) in Llgl1-depleted retinal precursors, suggest that the size of the apical domain of retinal neuroepithelia modulates the strength of the polarised signals that influence neurogenesis.

Mitotic-meiotic switch awry in testicular teratoma

The formation of testicular teratomas and other testicular germ cell tumours (TGCTs) is thought to involve defects in male germ cell development. On p. 1577, Jason Heaney and co-workers provide new insights into TGCT development by studying strains of mice with different teratoma incidences, including the 129 strain, which has a high spontaneous rate of TGCTs. In 129 mice, TGCTs are visible at embryonic day (E) 15.5 as microscopic foci of pluripotent stem cells (embryonal carcinoma cells). The researchers report that germ cell proliferation, the expression of the pluripotency factor Nanog and the premature expression of genes normally expressed in pre-meiotic adult male germ cells, such as cyclin D1 and Stra8, at E15.5 are all directly related to increased tumour risk. Notably, embryonal carcinoma cells co-express genes involved in germ cell pluripotency and differentiation, and deletion of Stra8 in 129 mice reduces their teratoma incidence. Together, these results indicate that deregulation of the mitotic-meiotic switch in male germ cells contributes to teratoma initiation.

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Sub-Nuclear Structures and Disease
28 June-1 July 2012
The Møller Centre, Cambridge, UK

Now in its third year, this Wellcome Trust meeting will focus on the biology of sub-nuclear structures including the nucleolus, cajal and PML bodies. These structures have key roles in normal and diseased cells and they interact in a dynamic way. A fundamental understanding of these sub-nuclear structures can lead to advances in our understanding of infectious disease and cancer.

The conference will bring together cell biologists, microbiologists and virologists working on normal and tumor cells and researchers interested in how these structures are affected by infectious and acquired disease across all eukaryotic systems.

Please note: Due to work to expand the Wellcome Trust Conference Centre at Hinxton, Sub-Nuclear Structures and Disease 2012 will take place at The Møller Centre, Churchill College – part of the historic University of Cambridge

Scientific Organisers:
Susan Baserga Yale University, USA
Julian Hiscox University of Leeds, UK
David Matthews University of Bristol, UK
Brian McStay NUI Galway, Ireland

Invited Speakers include:
Susan Baserga Yale University, USA
Richard Gardner University of Washington, USA
Ingrid Grummt Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Germany
Ross Hannan Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia
Valerie Lallemand-Breitenbach Hopital Saint-Louis, France
Angus Lamond University of Dundee, UK
Greg Matera University of North Carolina, USA
Brian McStay NUIG, Ireland
Karla Neugebauer Max Planck Institute, Germany
Craig S. Pikaard Indiana University, USA
Michael Taliansky The James Hutton Institute, UK
David Tollervey University of Edinburgh, UK
Adrian Whitehouse University of Leeds, UK

Abstract submission is strongly encouraged as several talks will be selected from abstracts.

For more information and to register, please see: https://registration.hinxton.wellcome.ac.uk/display_info.asp?id=294

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In the study of the roles of genes during development, one problem that is often faced by researchers examining ‘late’ roles of genes is one of obscuration by temporal pleiotropy. That is: gene mutations and gene knock-down obscure late roles in development, because early phenotypes, such as cell death or malformed embryos, make it impossible to examine later functions. A common way to achieve gene knock-down in developing zebrafish and Xenopus tadpoles, is by using Morpholinos (MOs). These are antisense oligonucleotides composed of morpholine-modified nucleotide subunits, commonly used to block the initiation of translation or to block splicing. We were faced with just such a pleiotropy problem with a set of genes we are currently studying. We considered trying to cage MOs ourselves, rendering them temporally activatable, by linking two complementary MOs together using a photo-cleavable crosslinker, much as has already been described previously (e.g. Shestopalov et al. 2007). We called Gene Tools LLC, the company that synthesizes MOs, to ask them whether they had any suggestions with the chemistry. Paul Morcos, at Gene Tools LLC, mentioned that they had been developing such a product for a while and thought they were close to having something worth trying out.

A few months later, Paul called, asking if we would like to test their new photo-controllable MOs. They had designed a photo-cleavable subunit with the size and chemical properties so as to ‘blend in’ with the other MO subunits, but that could be cleaved by UV light. This made it possible to design (1) sense-photo-MOs (S-photo-MOs), which would base pair with ‘regular’ MOs and thus block their activity until UV exposure, and (2) antisense-photo-MOs (AS-photo-MOs), which would function just like ‘regular’ MOs until inactivation by UV exposure. These could then be used to turn gene function off at a given time point (using S-photo-MOs mixed with complimentary MOs), or, in a novel application, turn gene function on at a given time point (using AS-photo-MOs). These MOs would then allow researchers to study early or late gene function respectively, creating a more complete picture of gene function during development; and to find the critical time period in which gene function is necessary for the proper development of specific cell populations. Furthermore, we considered that by using a laser, we could generate cell-autonomous  knock-down of genes in specific cell populations, eliminating the need for cell transplant experiments from WT into mutant backgrounds, or vice versa.

We chose ntla, sox10 and gal4 genes as targets with which to beta-test the photo-MOs. Both ntla and sox10 knock-down have easily identifiable phenotypes. Gal4 was chosen as it would potentially give researchers the additional temporal and spatial control over transgene expression for a wide variety of applications. The results are published in the latest edition of Development, showing that these new reagents from Gene Tools work surprisingly well. As with regular MOs, the ideal working concentration needs to be determined, and one needs to find the best ratio of S-photo-MO to regular MO (1:1 is a good starting point). Once optimized these reagents perform well, almost completely blocking MO activity before UV and completely releasing MO activity after UV. Interestingly, our results confirmed that ntla is only necessary as late as tailbud stage to drive medial precursor cells towards a notochord fate, and that sox10 is not required for neural crest formation, but for maintenance. Experiments with Gal4 photo-MOs allowed us to restrict expression of a transgene (in this case GFP) to primary and not secondary motoneurons. This was not possible until now using conventional transgenic approaches. We hope these tools go on to help researchers circumnavigate problems of temporal pleiotropy during development and help enhance the expression patterns of transgenes in the future.

Alexandra Tallafuss, Dan Gibson, Paul Morcos, Yongfu Li, Steve Seredick, Judith Eisen, & Philip Washbourne (2012). Turning gene function ON and OFF using sense and antisense photo-morpholinos in zebrafish Development, 139 (9), 1691-1699 : 10.1242/dev.075390

(8 votes)

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The breakfast bell rang early this morning, so I’ve only just gotten my shower this evening which is a good thing since I was filthy and covered in sand. We headed back to the spot where we set traps last night, and lo and behold I think we only lost one.  And I could be wrong on that.  I’m guessing because the spacing at one point was longer than it should have been, but I haven’t yet counted.  It’s too bad I have no interest in those stinking gerbils! Out of the 50 traps we placed yesterday, 12 had a gerbil in them but not a single jerboa. Some of that could have to do with the fact that we set them early in the day, and gerbils are diurnal.  So it’s hard for a jerboa to land itself in an already occupied trap.  But regardless, fail. We did, however, see good jerboa tracks this time since the sand was dry.  They’re pretty easy to tell since they are in pairs spaced about 10 inches between strides. The gerbils make scurrying tracks, so they’re quite distinguishable from each other.  So the animals are out and now to catch them!

(1 votes)

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When I stepped into the Institute of Genetics, Mainz, I stepped into the world of neural development – I was like Aladdin in the Cave of Wonders! It was all so new to me – so exciting, and so much to learn!

Prof. Gerhard Technau’s group worked on different aspects of Drosophila neural development – either a particular cell type (eg. neuroblasts/neurons/glia) or a part of the nervous system (eg. brain/ventral nerve cord).

I was working with Dr. Christian Berger, who was so much fun – he was as excited to teach, as I was to learn!

Dr. Olaf Vef, fondly called the ‘fly doctor’, helped me with the fly work. He’s a whiz at fly genetics, and I’m sure he has the 1000 odd list of his fly stocks catalogued in his memory, available for any-time recall!

I learnt the A B C of embryology, and what I hope, at least the A of neurobiology.
I learned to identify different stages of the embryo, different segments in an embryo. (Though I still can never be certain of the stage – can only say the maximum probability. Olaf says it’s a little like voodoo – rarely would you find an embryo at a stage where it looks exactly as in the text books – it’s so dynamic.)
I learned to dissect embryos so I could look at them at the cellular level. This wasn’t so easy – an embryo itself is hardly seen without a microscope (it’s about 0.5mm). And different stages needed a slight variation of technique.
The protein I was working on had a broad expression pattern, but I got a lot of help for interpreting images. I learnt to identify sub-types of cells through relative position and intensity of expression of markers.

The seminars, and discussions thereafter were very stimulating. I got to learn from everyone here – through individual discussions and ‘chats’ in the kitchen during breaks!

Inside the University, everyone spoke English so I had no trouble at all. Even outside, I managed with ‘wo, rechts, links, bitte, vielen danke ‘ (Where, right, left, please, thank you very much) and sign-language. (When I couldn’t, there was always someone around to help, so I didn’t find the language barrier much of a problem.)

The Fremde werden Freunde (Foreigners become Friends) group had meeings every month. (I could only attend 2, but they were fun!) The group also got me ‘local hosts’ in Marga and Kim, who introduced me to German culture and traditions. (I was lucky to be here during Christmas time! Though I wish I had more time and money to spend at the Christmas markets…)

The transport system was awesome – as regular as notes in a song.

I suppose the formation of life fascinates not the scientist alone – even the philosopher, the theologist, the clinician and the wayside man are known to have pondered over it.

My visit here gave me a lot to think about – I call this place a veritable ‘scientific heaven’ and the eponymous ‘temple of learning’ mentioned in text-books.

I cherish my memories of here, and I hope the road to reality takes a U-turn and leads me right back!

And I must say – I regard Development and the Company of Biologists as the fairy God-mother, who arranged my visit to ‘the ball’!

(5 votes)

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Money appears to have been the main topic of conversation this month. In the past few weeks, we’ve had a glimpse into the status of science funding in countries around the world.

Paul O’Neill shared some news about the current funding situation in Japan, where government advisors recommended amalgamation of the main science bodies to save funds. Spain also got some bad funding news recently, as SEBD president Angela Nieto mentioned in her interview earlier this month: The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation has been discontinued, and investment for research is reduced.

Fortunately, research funding is not on the chopping block in all countries. This month we also heard from José Xavier Neto, president of the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology, that Brazil has a stable source of funding for young Brazilian researchers who are returning to their home country after a postdoc abroad.

“If you are a young scientist in Brazil and you do a successful postdoc in the UK, Europe, USA or Japan, for instance, you stand a very high chance of getting a Young Investigator Award from FAPESP when you return to Brazil. These awards will pay for your salary, equipment and consumables for five years. (…). I tell all my former students that are doing postdocs in the States: “Listen, Brazil really turned into a good place to start a lab.””

If you live in one of the (many) countries where science funding is under threat, you don’t have to sit idly by. In a talk at the GSA Drosophila Genetics Meeting, Jennifer Zeitzer of FASEB gave some effective and practical tips on how scientists can influence policy makers. Her talk was mainly aimed at Americans, but many of her tips are internationally applicable.

What’s the news on science funding in your country? Feel free to register for the Node and write about it.

Resources
As tight as funding is almost everywhere, it’s still crucial to keep community resources running. FlyBase has started the process of renewing their NIH funding, and is requesting community input. Their survey closes March 31st (tomorrow!).

Meanwhile, the SDB announced a new community resource: Together with Wiley-Blackwell they launched WIREs – a collection of peer-reviewed research articles in developmental biology.

Research:
As usual, there have been a few research updates on the Node. Tom Butts summarized the latest in the field of ncRNAs, and Erin Campbell shared an image from a recent article that highlights differences in hypoblast and epiblast lineage segregation between human and bovine cultured embryos.

Kim Cooper is in China to collect jerboa embryos for her research on hind limb development. She previously wrote about her jerboa work on the Node, and is now doing field work in Xinjiang.

If you read interesting papers, or would like to share something about your own work, join the Node and start writing!

Also on the Node:

–Review of “Naturally Obsessed” – a documentary about graduate students.
– Book reviews of two books from the “A Very Short Introduction” series: “Developmental Biology” and “The Animal Kingdom”.
-New meetings on the events page, and a summary of the Quantissue Symposium.
–New jobs

(1 votes)

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This morning after a breakfast of fermented tofu on steamed buns, boiled peanut and rice soup, spicy strands of seaweed, and a plate of mixed onion, peppers, and tomato in vinegar, we headed off in the jeep in search of the right kind of desert for jerboas. I knew one of the places where we’d trapped animals with snap traps before, so we went up the highway to some of those dunes and walked around for a bit looking for tracks. It rained last night, so where we could see tracks they were too dampened down by the rain to tell if they were jerboa or gerbil. There are a lot of gerbils around here (aka sand rat or jird). Nasty critters. So we decided to go back to the jeep and loaded up with 50 traps, peanut butter, and a bag of oats to walk along a trail and set live traps for the night. Every 20 steps I scooped some bait into the trap with a stick and set it, and at every 5th trap we placed a flag to mark the line so they wouldn’t get lost. I hope they don’t get trampled by goats or stolen by herders since those are borrowed and will be expensive to replace. But fingers crossed we have more than gerbils by morning. The driver said there was no reason to mark where we started since he’s sure to remember. I took note of the surroundings just in case. Road marker 535 between the radio tower and the big blue sign – past the third herd of camels on the left. Of the two humped variety.

On the way back to the field station, we stopped by a yurt on the side of the road to see if we could persuade people to do some catching for us tonight. It was an older Kazakh couple who were crouched over a goat in a pen as we walked up. They must have thought we were an obnoxious group of tourists since while I was just pleasantly smiling and doing my best to put them at ease, my colleagues were eagerly snapping photographs. It was something to see though – the woman was in a red/orange/pink brocade jacket with coordinating scarf over her head, and she and her husband where holding a goat down on the ground so her two newborn kids could nurse. The poor little things couldn’t have been more than a day old and still had recently dried bits of afterbirth attached to their fur and incompletely resolved umbilical cords. One was stronger than the other and kept pushing his sibling away. Neither could get firmly up on all four feet and kept stumbling forward on their ankles before toppling flat on the ground. I hope they make it but they seem so vulnerable and stand only maybe 10 inches from the ground. It’s a tough life out here.

We asked about jerboas in the area, and the woman said she thought she knew what we were talking about and had a dead one. She led us over near the remains of a fire where it seems the animal had been attracted to the light and was killed. Gerbil. Stupid stupid gerbil. So we thanked her and drove on to the local forestry station since I knew we had hired a family to catch for us before who work at one of the forestry stations. The men at this station knew the animals, said yes we are in the right place, they are further into the desert, and there is a family at the field station further away who we should talk to. I have a good feeling these are the people we hired before, and we are headed there tomorrow to investigate and negotiate. Fingers crossed…

(1 votes)

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If you’ve recently visited our Facebook page, you may have already seen them, but we have some new banners – of both the physical and digital kind.

First of all, we have a new banner to take to conferences. If you’re going to some of the conferences where The Company of Biologists has a stand, you will get to see this in person. Its debut on the conference circuit will be the BSDB/BSCB/JSDB meeting in Warwick next month. Look for the banner there, and you may also find the Node Community Manager Eva Amsen and Development Executive Editor Katherine Brown, who are both attending the conference.

We also have a new digital banner on our Facebook page. Facebook is changing the way that pages look, and required us to switch to a timeline with “cover image”. It incorporates the images we use on promotional material (the banner and flyers) as well as the rainbow menu from the site, so it should look familiar!

We use Facebook to let you know of new Node posts, but also to point you to some interesting content on other websites. We also have a Twitter account, which includes most of the things that are also on Facebook, plus tweets from conferences and retweets from additional interesting sources.

All in all, there are many ways to keep up with the Node, and some of them now have a fresh new look.

(2 votes)

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I have sprung up again in China. It’s time for another field collection of jerboa embryos in far northwestern China (Xinjiang), and since this is the reason Eva invited me to contribute to the Node, I figure it is finally time for me to oblige.

The last couple of days were eventful. Friday morning I was met at my hotel and escorted to the main building of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to give a seminar on my research. It went really well. I had a lot of interest and good questions all around even though this is primarily an ecology institute. Most were interested in how to catch and how to raise the animals. There is a lab here that is interested in studying hibernation in the jerboas, so I’ll be doing my best to advise. That same lab is also doing genetic barcoding of a variety of species in Xinjiang, including the rodents, so it looks like I have extra company for at least part of the field collections. Fantastic for me. I could use as much help as people are willing to offer.

After a tour of the lab spaces, including a room with five small aerial surveillance aircraft and another room with a nice new fancy scanning electron microscope, I headed back to my room to rest for a bit before the scheduled tour of the natural history museum. They have a fantastic museum here, a really wonderful educational resource. The animal rooms have mounts of many of the species that are native to Xinjiang, and they were incredibly well prepared. The feathers and fur are in excellent condition with really good eyes and mounted in postures that make them look ready to leap right off their perch and out the door. More importantly, they have about a half dozen jerboas that are all in accurate postures. This is in stark contrast to all of the mounts I’ve seen in the US and in London that are contorted and weirdly posed in ways you just really don’t ever see a live jerboa. So I guess it does make a big difference for the preparator to actually see the animal they’re stuffing while it’s still alive.

After the tour I was whisked away in a black town car to a restaurant on an upper floor of a highrise building and down the hall to a private dining room. Ahhhh, the Chinese banquet. They lulled me into a false sense of comfort with their low key first evening when in fact I was not getting off easy. I know enough by now to linger about the edge of the table while everyone fusses and argues over the seating arrangement. I sit where I’m told to sit, when I’m told to sit. The custom is that the seat furthest from and facing the door is reserved for the host. The seats to the right and left are seats of honor. And then it goes around the table from there. I was second to the right of the host. Not bad. The other, more important seats were reserved for directors of the Xinjiang Normal University. Chinese banquets are lavish affairs with about twenty times more food on the table than the guests could or will ever consume. There is a lazy susan at the center of the table, and you just grab whatever looks appealing as it glides past. Fortunately, I am happy to just eat whatever lands in front of me without asking what it is. One of the first things I picked up was what I thought was some kind of mushroom. The taste and texture was not inconsistent with that inoffensive thought…and then the professor to my right leaned in to tell me I’d just eaten chicken stomach. Delightful. But you really never know what you’re going to get, so it’s best to keep an open mind.

And while I didn’t get the highest seat of honor, I did get the fish. The last dish to hit the table is the whole fish. And the lazy susan gets turned about until the head is pointing straight at the guest of honor. The person who gets the head gets to take the first bite of the fish. I asked to be sure that didn’t mean I had to actually eat the head. But what they failed to tell me until later is that if the honored guest takes a full drink of baiju (I’ll get to that later), he or she can then order the others at the table to take certain parts of the fish – the eyeballs, lower jaw, dorsal fin. Each has some specific symbolism that I can’t remember because by that point I’d had too much baiju.

Ah, the baiju. Chinese for rotgut white lightening. 65% alcohol served in tiny little eyewash glasses. The glasses are deceitful and make you think you aren’t drinking as much as you are. This is also the first time I was introduced to the culture of the three toasts. At past banquets, the host gives a speech and everyone drinks. Then another important person will speak, and everyone drinks. Then the guest gives a speech, and well, you get the picture. This time there were those same kinds of speeches, but the host gives three speeches that can be interspersed with other speeches, but they are all group speeches. Once the host gives the third speech, then the party can move on to the one on one more casual toasts. The foreigner is always the target in curiosity – how much can you drink? And it’s very critical to doing business in China. I heard this time that there is a written law in Beijing that says no business can be conducted without baiju. I think the top politicians in this country must have liver disease by now. It’s a way of showing your strength, your happiness, your honor. I managed to show remarkable strength and made a good impression on my hosts without spilling my “honor” in front of anyone. Business has officially begun.

(3 votes)

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A 3 years post-doctoral position is immediately available
in the laboratory of Michèle Crozatier and Alain Vincent, at the Centre de
Biologie du Développement CNRS/Toulouse University, France. One main topic of
the lab concerns Drosophila hematopoiesis, the hematopoietic niche and the plasticity
of cell fates in the lymph gland (http://www-cbd.ups-tlse.fr/spip.php?rubrique53).
The candidate will further explore
the function of the niche, in physiological and immune conditions. A strong
background in Cellular and Developmental Biology is required. A background in
bioinformatics is preferred. Pevious experience with Drosophila would be a
plus. Please provide a C.V, a motivation letter and contact information for two
references to Michèle Crozatier (crozat(at)cict.fr ) or Alain Vincent (alain.vincent(at)univ-tlse3.fr). Informal enquiries are welcome.

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