Creating effective poster presentations: AMEE Guide no. 40.

Poster presentations have become an important part of professional meetings and are recognized as valuable tools for teaching and assessment. An effective poster is a visual communication tool that will help you engage colleagues in conversation, convey your main point to large numbers of people, and advertise your work. An effective poster is a highly condensed version of a research paper constructed primarily of visual displays of data with just enough supporting text to provide context, interpretation, and conclusions.

Ephrin-A5 exerts positive or inhibitory effects on distinct subsets of EphA4-positive motor neurons.

Eph receptor tyrosine kinases and ephrins are required for axon patterning and plasticity in the developing nervous system. Typically, Eph-ephrin interactions promote inhibitory events; for example, prohibiting the entry of neural cells into certain embryonic territories. Here, we show that distinct subsets of motor neurons that express EphA4 respond differently to ephrin-A5.

Long-distance cue from emerging dermis stimulates neural crest melanoblast migration.

Neural crest melanoblasts display unique navigational abilities enabling them to colonize the dorsal path between ectoderm and somite. One signal shown here to elicit melanoblast migration is a chemotactic cue supplied by the emerging dermis. Until dermis emerges, melanoblasts fail to enter the dorsal path.

Three functionally distinct adhesions in filopodia: shaft adhesions control lamellar extension.

In this study, adhesions on individual filopodial shafts were shown to control veil (lamellar) advance and to be modulated by guidance cues. Adhesions were detected in individual filopodia of sensory growth cones using optical recordings, adhesion markers, and electron microscopy. Veils readily advanced along filopodia lacking shaft adhesions but rarely advanced along filopodia displaying shaft adhesions.