Cover image

Cover Illustration: Volume renderings of selected subjects from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) developmental atlases of quail (left) and mouse (right). The center image shows a mid-sagittal section through the 18-d post-conception mouse atlas. Volumetric anatomical labels were manually delineated from 3D MRI of fixed samples. MRI is a nondestructive imaging modality in which the specimens remain in near physiological conditions preserving tissue morphology. The volume renderings were generated using the anatomical atlas labels as masks for the 3D MRI data. Individual color and transparency maps were applied to each of the masked image volumes to visually distinguish anatomy. On the left are renderings of embryonic days 6, 8, and 10 ex ovo quail atlases; on the right 8.5-, 12-, and 18-d post-conception mouse atlases. MRI data were collected on an 11.7-T Bruker-Biospec MRI scanner. (Image courtesy of Seth Ruffins and Russell Jacobs.) For more information on this method, see MRI in Developmental Biology and the Construction of Developmental Atlases (doi:10.1101/pdb.top100).