Silvia Caballero-Mancebo (IST Austria) kicks off the ITM9 in a room filled to capacity on Monday July 17. Title of her talk: “Actin-driven ooplasmic segregation in ascidian oocytes” Benoit Godard (IST Austria) “Cleavage plane positioning in early ascidian embryos” Rémi Dumollard (Sorbonne Universités, UPMC, CNRS), “Apical cell shape drives the invariant cleavage pattern of early ascidian embryos and relies on intrinsic and extrinsic cell deformations” Ute Rothbächer (University of Innsbruck) “Repression through Wnt signaling effectors” Takefumi Negishi (Tohoku University) “Membrane invagination mediated posterior ciliary positioning is involved in the neurula rotation in Ciona intestinalis” Christina Cota (Swarthmore College) “Mitotic progression choreographs FGF receptor redistribution during differential heart progenitor induction” Yelena Bernadskaya (NYU) “Dual function of the collagen receptor DDR in specifying cell identity and regulating cell adhesion during cardiopharyngeal precursor migration” Michael Veeman (Kansas State University) “Shaping the ascidian notochord” Robert Zeller (San Diego State University) “Genome and transcriptome assemblies for two Ascidia species” Megan Wilson (University of Otago) “Tunicate evolution: Insights from recently sequenced genomes” Marie Nydam (Centre College) “Balancing selection on allorecognition genes in the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri” Loriano Ballarin (University of Padova) “Amyloid and allorecognition in the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri” Ayelet Voskoboynik (Stanford University) “BHF mediates induction and loss of tolerance in Botryllus schlosseri chimeras”

Emmanuel Faure (CNRS) “4D Cloud embryos”. Taichi Akahoshi (Keio University) “Comprehensive characterization of Ca2+ transients in early ascidian development”. Alberto Stolfi (NYU and GeorgiaTech) “A conserved RNA switch for acetylcholine receptor clustering at the neuromuscular junction” Ulla-Maj Fiuza (EMBL) “A Nodal and Ephrin signalling relay drives the transition between apical constriction and apical-basal shortening during ascidian endoderm invagination”. Emma Farley (UCSD) “Regulatory grammar governing enhancer specificity”. Claudia Racioppi (NYU) “Chromatin accessibility underlying cardiac vs. pharyngeal muscle specification in Ciona”. Wei Wang (NYU) “A single-cell transcriptional roadmap for cardiopharyngeal fate diversification”. Takeo Horie (University of Tsukuba/Princeton) “Neural crest and cranial placodes share a common evolutionary origin. Adeline Rausch (Bioemergences – CNRS) “Putative neural crest-like cells in Tunicates: behavior, identity and fate of A10.64 Kouhei Oonuma (Konan University) “The cell lineage and the patterns of cell division for photoreceptor cells of the left-right asymmetric ocelli in the Ciona intestinalis larva. Kerrianne Ryan (Dalhousie University) “Interpreting the connectome of a Ciona intestinalis (L.) larva.

Conklin's autograph Conklin Table-1 Conklin Table-2 Conklin Table-3 Excursion to Princeton University.Team Conklin Including, among all the super-cool participants, two Conklin medalists (Nori Satoh and Mike Levine) and Hiroki Nishida, who identified the macho-1 mRNA as a main component of the yellow crescent (myoplasm) of the ascidian embryo (Edwin G. Conklin, 1905).

Billie Swalla (Washington University) “Molgulid tales” Cristian Cañestro (University of Barcelona) “Gains N’ Losses during the evolution of RA and Wnt developmental pathways in Oikopleura dioica and ascidian species” Dorothee Huchon (Tel-Aviv University) “Insights from complete mitochondrial sequences on the phylogenetic relationships of Aplousobranchia” Fabio Gasparini (University of Padova) “Disentangling a species complex: the case of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri” Rosana Rocha (Universidade Federal do Paraná) “Is Styela canopus a complex of species?” Keynote lecture – Gretchen Lambert (Washington University) “50 years as a sea squirt detective: a BRIEF summary” Shady Amin (NYU Abu Dhabi) “Algal-bacterial interactions: Mutualism, antagonism and chemical signaling” Mey-Tal Gewing (Tel-Aviv University) “Med vs. Red: temperature sensitivity of the non-indigenous ascidian Herdmania momus in the Mediterranean Sea” Steve Irvine (University of Rhode Island) “Connecting water temperature to reproductive physiology and molecular signals in C. intestinalis” Lauren Stefaniak (Georgia Southern University) “Comprehensive characterization of Ca2+ transients in early ascidian development”. Susanna Lopez-Gentil (University of North Carolina Wilmington) “Introduced and native ascidian microbiomes from artificial versus natural habitats” Thomas Stach (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) “Structure-function analysis of the filter-house of the appendicularian Oikopleura dioica” Laurel Hiebert (Universidade de São Paulo) “How ecological factors influence growth patterns of colonial and solitary ascidians”

Antonio Palladino (Stazione Zoologica ‘A. Dohrn’) “Gsx in ascidian central nervous system development” Ugo Coppola (Stazione Zoologica ‘A. Dohrn’) “Klhl21: a new player for pigmentation from Ciona robusta” Brad Davidson (Swarthmore College) “Laterally asymmetric morphogenesis of the heart and gut in Ciona intestinalis” Gabriel Krasovec (Sorbonne Univ., UPMC, IBPS, CNRS) “Morphogenetic function of apoptosis during tail regression at the metamorphosis stage of Ciona intestinalis” Hiroki Nishida (Osaka Univ.) “Patterning and morphogenesis of the intricate but stereotyped oikoplastic epidermis of the appendicularian, Oikopleura dioica” Anthony De Tomaso (UC Santa Barbara) “In vivo manipulation of the extracellular matrix induces vascular regression in a basal chordate” Maria Mandela Prünster (Sorbonne Univ., UPMC, CNRS) “Detour to make muscles? Myogenesis in the budding process of a colonial ascidian, Botryllus schlosseri” Stefano Tiozzo (Sorbonne Univ., UPMC, CNRS) “Asexual reproduction in Styelidae (Ascidiacea): an evo-devo approach” Tal Gordon (Tel-Aviv Univ.) “When one becomes two – unique regeneration abilities of the solitary ascidian Polycarpa mytiligera” William Jeffery (Univ. of Maryland) “Partial body regeneration, stem cells, and regenerative aging in Ciona” Kohji Hotta (Keio University) “The ontology of larval and metamorphosis stages in Ciona. I. Development.” Lucia Manni (Univ. of Padova) “4D Cloud embryos”. “The ontology of larval and metamorphosis stages in Ciona. II. Anatomy.” Justine Dardaillon – Round table discussion “Ascidian Databases” Wei Deng (SARS International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology) – Round table discussion “Functional Genomics: methods and resources”