Essay On Eye Poster

In their informative poster, University of Dayton’s Biology Department researchers Ankita Sarkar, Janan Bati and Armit Singh seek to explain the complex genetic hierarchy of eye development through experiments which analyze the development of the eye of a Drosophila Fruit eye from birth to adulthood. According to the experiments, significant changes occur in the eye at the beginning of the third instar stage of development. It is at the third instar stage where the fly’s retinal gene differentiation occurs. According to the researchers, “a wave of differentiation sweeps from the posterior to the anterior margin” of the fly’s eye disc. The front end of the observed wave includes what the researchers identify as the Morphogenetic Furrow (MF). The researchers further state that the production of the MF is possible only with decapentaplegic (dpp).
The poster provides a step-by-step explanation of the whole process that the researchers observed. First, between birth and the third instar, the eye goes through a process of specification, axis determination and differentiation. Second, during the early part of the third instar, retinal differentiation occurs as the wave of dpp enabled MF moves from the posterior to the anterior margin This allows the transcription of the second tier of RD genes. Further development requires precisely regulated patterns of gene expression. Tissue specific transcription factors such as the RD genes influence or control such developments. The poster then goes on to show how the researchers were able to clone the enhancers that were used on the last stage of eye development. The poster ends with the statement that cloned enhancers can be used in future experiments for the timely control of gene expression.
The poster, as mentioned was highly informative. However, the way that it informs is more like reading an academic article rather than observing a poster. In other words, the pictures and diagrams that were used, did not provide anything beyond what was mentioned in the words that accompanied them. Accordingly, the poster would most likely attract someone that is interested in the topic or who has some background in the topic. Such people would not mind reading the description and explanations, and would probably be able to draw some further understanding from the images. However, for an observer that may not have the background, they would need to read all the text to be able to draw any information from the images. Moreover, since it was an informative poster rather than an academic text, a focus on the image as the primar explanation with the text providing a secondary or supportive resource to facilitate the understanding of the image seems more appropriate.
One good point of the poster was the abstract in the beginning. This provided a necessary introduction of what the researchers attended to accomplish and how they progressed in their experiments. Without the abstract it would have been hard to understand the rest of the poster. The one part that could be better was the last image on the first page. This image could be enhanced with more description or explanation. Such descriptions were included with all other images, so it is a bit confusing why that image did not. Moreover, that particular image is explaining perhaps the poster’s most complex process.
Nevertheless, the poster as a whole is well down, organized, and useful.