Martha Bianca R.

Zuiga BS Materials Engineering Reaction Paper (PSDB 4th Annual Convention) The PSDB convention that we attended last August 25, 2012 in the Institute of Biology was really fun. The venue was full of students from UST, Ateneo, UP of course, and other schools. The program started with opening ceremonies. Then, there were brilliant speakers that shared to us about different topics/oral presentations and all of them were interesting. The first one was Pablito M. Magdalita, Ph D. He discussed to us about the development of hibiscus hybrids in the Philippines. This is my favorite presentation because I was amazed about the gumamelas with various colors that they are able to make in their breeding program. The multiple flower colors that were presented are very beautiful. Every flower has a name that came from a famous/national woman in the Philippines. The second was about sexually dimorphic events during external genitalia development that was presented by Ms. Lerie Ann Ipulan from Wakayama Medical University and also Kumamoto University in Japan. In her presentation weve found out that the genital tubercle has been well studied for developmental differences in male and female. However, another part of the external genitalia, the perineum, can distinguish male and female mice embryos. They analyzed the stage-specific and gender specific differences in male and female perineum by both cellular events and gene expression pattern differences during perineum formation. After these two presentations, we headed outside, grabbed our snacks and saw the different posters outside. In about 30 minutes, we went back to the room for the continuation of the program. The last speaker was Ms. Joycelyn C. Jumawan from CARAGA State University that talked about in vitro fertilization and early development stages in the invasive suckermouth sailfin catfish or also known as the janitor fish here in the Philippines. This was a very interesting topic for me because I find this kind of fish disgusting but like she said, it is interesting to study about janitor fishes. They were able to study about the developmental stages of the janitor fish using human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). She said that these fishes are actively spawning during rainy seasons and not much on dry seasons. She also taught us that we shouldnt put these kind of fishes in the wild because its not good for the fishes. After her presentation, there was an open forum where we were allowed to ask questions to the speakers. The organizers also prepared a quiz bee for us. There were 10 questions, whoever answers each of the questions correct; he/she will be given 200 pesos. The program ended with closing remarks. For me, this convention indeed was a great experience.