Report on the 1972 MBL Embryology Course, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

The central theme of the 1972 Embryology Course was the phenomenon of cytoplasmic localization. During the initial phase of the course, an intensive series of lectures, technical workshops and discussions was held. The 19 trainees (5 faculty members, 4 postdoctoral fellows, and 10 graduate students) and the 6 instructors met each afternoon with that morning's lecturer for a detailed examination of the data and concepts presented by the speaker. Topics covered included a wide range of current molecular information relevant to the function and biosynthesis of macromolecular constituents in early embryos. Other lectures provided reviews of several classical developmental Systems in which localization has been most clearly identified. Dr. Nicholas Verdonk of the University of Utrecht participated as an additional Staff Member in the capacity of F. R. Lillie Fellow, and in addition to the Course Staff, lectures were given by Paul Gross, Robert C. King, Ralph Quatrano, John Arnold, Jack Collier, Klaus Sander, Walter Gehring, Tom Humphreys and Anthony Clement. Technical workshops were held in five separate areas, designed to provide an arsenal of methodologies which could be useful in experimental approaches to various aspects of the localization problem. The first of these provided laboratory familiarity with the early embryos of Ilyanassa, Arbacia, Ciona, Spisula, Cerebratulus, and Chaetopterus (Freeman). These organisms were later the subjects of the experimental investigations carried out by the trainees. The other workshops presented the trainees with detailed procedures and concepts for dealing with DNA/DNA reassociation and RNA/DNA hybridization (Davidson); separatory techniques for proteins and nucleic acids, isolation of protein synthesis components and measurement of synthetic rates (Kafatos); constitution and operation of cell free protein synthesis systems (Ilan); and amino acid and nucleoside uptake and incorporation kinetics and kinetic procedures for measuring rates of synthesis (Smith). The Staff found the program of events at least as instructive as did the trainees.