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The Development Of Immunohistochemistry (Icc) And Transcriptomic Protocols To Uncover Neurophysiological Markers Of Stress In Red-Eyed Tree Frogs As A Novel Biome, Shirin Dadina May 2024

The Development Of Immunohistochemistry (Icc) And Transcriptomic Protocols To Uncover Neurophysiological Markers Of Stress In Red-Eyed Tree Frogs As A Novel Biome, Shirin Dadina

Senior Theses and Projects

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include various forms of physical and emotional abuse that lead to detrimental long term effects. Agalychnis callidryas (red-eyed tree frogs) have been identified as a novel biomedical model for ACEs. Red-eyed tree frogs demonstrate an escape hatch mechanism under stressors including those from predators, flooding and hypoxia where the embryo undergoes an accelerated developmental process similar to what is observed in the human population regarding precocious puberty. In order to assess this model for neurobiological outcomes of ACEs, morphological and genomic protocols must be developed and validated which is this study’s focus. Paraffin embedding and microtome …


Physically, Mentally, And Emotionally Drained, Kaitlin Medina Jan 2024

Physically, Mentally, And Emotionally Drained, Kaitlin Medina

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Hormonal cycles play an essential role in the development and maturation of young boys and girls into men and women. As teenagers enter their late teens and early twenties, their hormonal cycles are primarily responsible for functions related to fertility and hormone production. During this period of time, these men and women are often in their collegiate years. Overall, the college experience is enjoyable for many students, but it can also be a very stressful time due to a difficult class load and the students’ need to balance their academic, social, and personal lives. Recent studies have analyzed the effects …


Understanding The Environmental And Genetic Influence On Fluctuating Asymmetry And Developmental Instability In Primates, Ashly N. Romero Aug 2023

Understanding The Environmental And Genetic Influence On Fluctuating Asymmetry And Developmental Instability In Primates, Ashly N. Romero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the impact of environmental factors on the development and perpetuation of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and sought to understand the role evolution may play in the FA exhibited in two primate populations: the free-ranging Cayo Santiago rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and the Southwest National Primate Research Center olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis). Demographic, ontogenetic, secular, external, and genetic factors were examined. Specifically, this dissertation investigated FA over all ontogenetic stages, across decades, between sexes, in association with ecological catastrophes, and with tooth pathology to try and tease apart factors that may influence FA and developmental instability. This dissertation …


Microglial Response To Glucocorticoids During Chronic Sleep Fragmentation, Christian Chelson Aug 2023

Microglial Response To Glucocorticoids During Chronic Sleep Fragmentation, Christian Chelson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sleep is one of the body’s greatest and most basic needs. Chronic sleep loss (<6 hours a day) is linked to many cardiovascular issues, diabetes, and inflammatory conditions and has been shown to lower life expectancy. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a complication that causes sleep fragmentation in >8% of adults from developed countries, and many with OSA may be unaware of their condition. Having long-term OSA is linked to neuroinflammation caused by activated microglia in the brain, but the mechanics of this inflammation are not well understood. It is known that glucocorticoids, steroid hormones produced and released from the adrenal glands, have a suppressive effect on microglia. The purpose of this study is to explore the role that glucocorticoids have upon microglia activation induced by chronic sleep fragmentation (SF). C57BL/6J mice were …


The G Protein-Coupled Receptor (Gpcr) Fshr-1 And The Sphk-1 Lipid Kinase Regulate C. Elegans Life- And Healthspans Via A Common Pathway, Ryan Dennis Adkins May 2023

The G Protein-Coupled Receptor (Gpcr) Fshr-1 And The Sphk-1 Lipid Kinase Regulate C. Elegans Life- And Healthspans Via A Common Pathway, Ryan Dennis Adkins

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Later years of life are often characterized by reduced cognitive function and mobility. One contributor is the cellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), but our understanding of how cells respond to ROS to promote health and survival is incomplete. Follicle stimulating hormone receptor-1 (FSHR-1) and sphingosine kinase-1 (SPHK-1) mediate responses to oxidative stress and regulate life history traits in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. The genes encoding both proteins are conserved in humans where they are implicated in stress responses, cell survival and neuronal function. fshr-1 and sphk-1 work together to mediate responses to intestinal oxidative stress in C. elegans. …


Stress And Parity Among Female Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus Pygerythrus) At Two Sites In South Africa, Jo Gansemer Dec 2022

Stress And Parity Among Female Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus Pygerythrus) At Two Sites In South Africa, Jo Gansemer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the hypothesis that in both Soetdoring and !Gariep populations, a femaleSouth African vervet's parity status (nulliparous or parous) affects her physiological stress levels. Vervet monkey ecology and life history are examined to contextualize the relationship between stress and parity. The testing of this hypothesis involves the analysis of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) of samples from nulliparous and multiparous adult females of the two different South African sites. The HCC was statistically analyzed to look for correlations between stress, parity status, and site. No significant relationship between stress and parity status was found. However, significant relationships were found …


Alcohol, Stress, And Sex In The Bed Nucleus Of The Stria Terminalis, Nicholas Burski Dec 2022

Alcohol, Stress, And Sex In The Bed Nucleus Of The Stria Terminalis, Nicholas Burski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) costs the U.S. billions of dollars each year and is a leading cause of preventable death. AUD leads to many health complications, and those who suffer from AUD will often have stress and anxiety disorder comorbidities. To better understand this connection between AUD and stress and anxiety disorders, restraint stress (RS) and chronic-intermittent ethanol exposure (CIE) procedures were used on rats to analyze neuroinflammation via ELISA in the infralimbic and prelimbic cortices, and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Levels of proinflammatory cytokines, TNF-α and IL-1β, were found to be elevated across different tests …


Patterns Of Evolutionary Conservation And Divergence In The Short-Term Hyposalinity Stress Response Of A Euryhaline Diatom, Skeletonema Marinoi, Kathryn Judy Aug 2022

Patterns Of Evolutionary Conservation And Divergence In The Short-Term Hyposalinity Stress Response Of A Euryhaline Diatom, Skeletonema Marinoi, Kathryn Judy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Survival under fluctuating environmental conditions, such as those increasing in frequency and magnitude under environmental change, requires a successful response to stress. Interspecific differences in stress responses may result in differential survival of species, even within a lineage. Diatoms may constitute one such lineage, as salinity tolerance among extant species is diverse, and the observation of frequent historic habitat transitions between marine and freshwater environments indicates that diatoms successfully mitigated (low) salinity stress in the past, followed by adaptation and diversification over evolutionary time scales. To understand to what extent the diatom hypoosmotic stress response consists of conserved and variable …


Examining Difference In Social Perceptions Between Women Using Hormonal Contraceptives And Naturally Cycling Women, Caroline B. Johnson May 2022

Examining Difference In Social Perceptions Between Women Using Hormonal Contraceptives And Naturally Cycling Women, Caroline B. Johnson

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The term “stress” refers to a person’s psychological and physiological response to the demands and pressures of the world around them (Farlex, 2021). Past research has shown that stress can have negative side effects on a person’s well-being (Aneshensel et al., 1991; Wunsch et al., 2017; Michie, 2002). Although people experience stress, some people perceive more stress than others. Perceptions are important because the way one understands certain conditions can elicit distinct emotional and physiological responses (Kemeny, 2003). An important factor that has not received a lot of attention is women’s use of hormonal contraceptives. In the United States, 24.4% …


Anxiety And Immunity: Affecting The Body And The Mind, Katelynn Dobbs May 2022

Anxiety And Immunity: Affecting The Body And The Mind, Katelynn Dobbs

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Speculations have been made within the scientific community that there is a link between the underlying mechanisms that impact anxiety disorders and immune system disorders. While many correlations between these disorders have been observed through various immune system disorder studies, this subject is still severely under-explored. In order to examine the potential relationship between anxiety disorders and immune system disorders, a survey was conducted and distributed among the student population at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. This survey collected data by asking a variety of questions that pertained to anxiety and immune system disorders diagnoses within the student population …


Analysis Of Test Anxiety In Human Anatomy And Physiology I Students At The University Of Mississippi, Anne Piazza Apr 2022

Analysis Of Test Anxiety In Human Anatomy And Physiology I Students At The University Of Mississippi, Anne Piazza

Honors Theses

Student anxiety, specifically test anxiety, is common hindrance to student performance in various courses including Human Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Mississippi. Through a sequence of three surveys we collected demographic information, anxiety data related to the course, and test anxiety in general We researched factors that could potentially influence student anxiety such as at what point in the semester the student is evaluated, when students feel the most stressed, outcomes on previous evaluations, and perceived outcomes of the course. We also examined what effect the anxiety has on the student such as lowered performance, lowered test scores, …


Increased Risk Of Mental Illness Due To Epigenetic Alteration Of The Nr3c1 Gene After Early Life Adversity., Erin Mccue Apr 2022

Increased Risk Of Mental Illness Due To Epigenetic Alteration Of The Nr3c1 Gene After Early Life Adversity., Erin Mccue

Thinking Matters Symposium

Early life adversity (ELA), such as malnutrition, abuse, and economic disparity, is an issue commonly seen in adolescents, a group already facing increased risk for stress-related disorders. This review of current literature reveals that gestational stress exposure, as well as variations in maternal care during postnatal development, cause latent effects on the epigenome, specifically impacting the glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) encoded by the NR3C1 gene. GRs bind to glucocorticoids to regulate the body’s neuroendocrine stress response. However, in those with a history of ELA, the number of GRs is reduced, generating dysregulation within the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Rodent studies are utilized …


The Regulation Of Stress Steroid Release In Freshwater Turtles, Yoke Tassent Jan 2022

The Regulation Of Stress Steroid Release In Freshwater Turtles, Yoke Tassent

Honors Program Theses

The goal of this study is to characterize the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis regulators of the stress response in a turtle species, the Red-Eared slider, Trachemys scripta elegans and to determine if NPY acts as a secretagogue for adrenal steroids in reptilian species, as it does in mammals. Here, I caught turtles using baited hoop traps. Then, I used pharmacological injections of ACTH (intermediate in HPA axis), dexamethasone (DEX, a synthetic steroid that blocks ACTH release and induces HPA negative feedback), NPY (starvation hormone), and NPY receptor agonists. Each turtle received a single injection upon capture, and I recorded whether adrenal …


Chronic Adolescent Stress As A Predictive Factor For The Risk Of Developing Ptsd-Like Symptoms In Adulthood, Grace K. Young Jan 2022

Chronic Adolescent Stress As A Predictive Factor For The Risk Of Developing Ptsd-Like Symptoms In Adulthood, Grace K. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a stress and trauma based psychological disorder that is defined by the DSM-IV as an anxiety disorder that affects approximately 7.8% of people in the United States. PTSD is when those who suffer a traumatic event have intense and distressing feelings, emotions, and memories for a prolonged period of time after the event. A prominent feature of PTSD is the impaired ability to properly extinguish a fear response after a dangerous trigger or stressor is no longer present, also known as safety learning. Stressors are threats perceived within the environment that activate a response within the …


Sex Differences In The Co-Expression Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha With Corticotropin Releasing Factor, Deborah Ariyibi Dec 2021

Sex Differences In The Co-Expression Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha With Corticotropin Releasing Factor, Deborah Ariyibi

Biological Sciences

Women are far more likely to develop anxiety and depression than men. It is believed that the dysregulation of the HPA axis by the binding of corticotropin -releasing factor (CRF) to the corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 (CRFR1) contributes to the likelihood of these stress- related disorders. Estrogens acting through Estrogen receptor alpha (ERa) have been shown to increase anxiety production upon activating the HPA axis. In this current study, we explored whether CRF-expressing neurons in various regions of the brain express ERa. The levels of ERa were counted in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), the medial preoptic …


Carpe Diem: Winner And Loser Effects Are Constrained To Same-Day Competitions In Collegiate Baseball, Omar Tonsi Eldakar, Natalie Buckwold, Andrew C. Gallup Oct 2021

Carpe Diem: Winner And Loser Effects Are Constrained To Same-Day Competitions In Collegiate Baseball, Omar Tonsi Eldakar, Natalie Buckwold, Andrew C. Gallup

Biology Faculty Articles

Competitive outcomes can be significantly influenced by previous experience of winning and losing, whereby all things considered, winners are likely to continue winning and losers are likely to keep losing. Although short-lived, the underlying hormonal changes associated with these effects have been observed into the following day. Here, we assess the functional persistence of winner and loser effects in college baseball by investigating outcomes (splits vs. sweeps) of multigame series played over one or more days. Results show that sweeps occur at disproportionately higher frequencies in single-day series, but drop off to expected levels for multiday series.


Estrogen Modulation Of Vta Dopamine Neuron Physiology And Behavioral Responsivity To Variable Social Stressors, Mary R. Shanley Sep 2021

Estrogen Modulation Of Vta Dopamine Neuron Physiology And Behavioral Responsivity To Variable Social Stressors, Mary R. Shanley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The behavioral output of different animals, or even the same animal in different contexts, is remarkably variable in response to the same external stimulus. This behavioral diversity is due to the complex integration of external and internal stimuli, through both neuronal and hormonal signals that selects the best behavioral response. By their nature as long-distance signaling molecules, hormones play a critical role in communicating information about internal states across the organism. Many hormones produced in the periphery target the central nervous system to modulate animal behavior, selecting for behaviors that are appropriate over behaviors that are maladaptive in that specific …


Mitochondrial Genome Structure And Double Strand Break Repair In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Sterling Ericsson Jul 2021

Mitochondrial Genome Structure And Double Strand Break Repair In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Sterling Ericsson

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The mitochondrial genomes of plants are known for their variability in size and arrangement, yet low mutation rates in coding sequences. These opposing characteristics have been suggested to be due to the stability of their DNA maintenance processes and the usage of a double strand break repair (DSBR) system. The components of this repair complex remain poorly understood and only a few of the involved enzymes have been identified, making direct analysis difficult. The flowering plant species Arabidopsis thaliana has been used as a model organism for genome modification and subsequent phenotypic and genotypic impacts. The aims of this research …


Wildfire As A Natural Stressor And Its Effect On Female Phenotype And Ornament Development, Stacey L. Weiss, Robert M. Brower Jun 2021

Wildfire As A Natural Stressor And Its Effect On Female Phenotype And Ornament Development, Stacey L. Weiss, Robert M. Brower

All Faculty Scholarship

Controlled low-intensity fires are commonly used in ecosystem management for both habitat restoration and wildfire management. Animals in those ecosystems may respond to fire by shifting energy allocation away from reproduction and growth, and toward maintenance. Stress-induced shifts in energy allocation may affect the expression of condition-dependent sexual signals, which are sensitive to energetic and physiological trade-offs mediated by glucocorticoids. Here, we examine the effect of fire on ornament expression, corticosterone, and other phenotypic traits in a population of striped plateau lizards, Sceloporus virgatus, affected by the Horseshoe 2 Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona, USA. The condition-dependent female ornament …


Shelter Dogs Need A Home: The Effect Of Enrichment And Human Contact On The Welfare And Adoptability Of Shelter Dogs, Hannah G. Clark May 2021

Shelter Dogs Need A Home: The Effect Of Enrichment And Human Contact On The Welfare And Adoptability Of Shelter Dogs, Hannah G. Clark

Honors Projects

It comes as no surprise that an animal shelter can be a stressful place for dogs. Shelter conditions, accompanied by multiple, novel stimuli, produce a stressful environment that cause hormonal and behavioral responses in dogs housed in shelters. Many of the stereotypical behaviors produced by the stress of living in a shelter, which tend to worsen as length of stay increases, are undesirable to potential adopters. However, many studies have shown that enrichment with a variety of toys, exercise, and human interaction can buffer the stress response in shelter dogs and improve their well-being. Implementing obedience training and temporary fostering …


How Acetylation Regulates Metabolic Enzyme Function During Environmental Shifts, Jared Canonigo May 2021

How Acetylation Regulates Metabolic Enzyme Function During Environmental Shifts, Jared Canonigo

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae can regulate the mechanisms of proteins through post-translational modification. These modifications play a vital role in functional proteomic activity because they can regulate protein activity, localization, and interaction with other cellular molecules. Such modifications include phosphorylation, methylation, and acetylation. The metabolic mechanisms of yeast became of keen interest to our lab because our lab noticed many stress defense proteins were being acetylated during stress heat shock. Notably, Adh1p and Adh2p showed both an increase and a decrease in acetylation at two lysine residues (K315 and K314) overtime during heat shock respectively, though the exact function …


Intergenerational Embodiment Of Stress : How The Broader Sociocultural Environment Can Shape Child Growth And Development, Elizabeth A. Holdsworth May 2021

Intergenerational Embodiment Of Stress : How The Broader Sociocultural Environment Can Shape Child Growth And Development, Elizabeth A. Holdsworth

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Childhood growth has been a means of identifying systemic, material inequalities within populations. The plasticity of growth is responsive to multiple environmental factors, most notably adequate nutrition, but also psychosocial stress. Psychosocial stress can be a function of the social and political economic ecology, reinforcing power hierarchies within societies. This dissertation proposes that childhood growth can also reflect inequality in the distribution of psychosocial stress exposure through mothers’ feelings of a chronically stressful environment conveyed through maternal-infant interactions.


Moderately Elevated Glucocorticoids Increase Mate Choosiness But Do Not Affect Sexual Proceptivity Or Preferences In Female Gray Treefrogs, Alexander T. Baugh, M. D. Gall, Stewart C. Silver , '20, M. A. Bee Apr 2021

Moderately Elevated Glucocorticoids Increase Mate Choosiness But Do Not Affect Sexual Proceptivity Or Preferences In Female Gray Treefrogs, Alexander T. Baugh, M. D. Gall, Stewart C. Silver , '20, M. A. Bee

Biology Faculty Works

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are rarely studied in the context of female mate choice, despite the expression of receptors for these products in sexual, sensory and decision-making brain areas. Here we investigated the effects of GC concentrations on three aspects of female sexual behavior in breeding Cope's gray treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis): proceptivity—a measure of sexual motivation, intraspecific mate preferences, and mate choosiness. To our knowledge this is the first experimental study on the endocrine basis of mate choosiness. We predicted that mate choosiness—forfeiting an initial mate preference to pursue a suddenly more attractive mate—would be particularly impacted by elevated GCs with moderate …


The Neuroinflammatory Effects Of Chronic Unpredictable Stress On Zebrafish, Danio Rerio, Brandon Stewart Dec 2020

The Neuroinflammatory Effects Of Chronic Unpredictable Stress On Zebrafish, Danio Rerio, Brandon Stewart

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Stress is a state of threatened homeostasis counteracted by various physiologic and behavioral responses aimed to maintain or restore balance. As such, stress acts as a motivator to perform during the challenges of life to survive. Chronic perturbations to the stress response homeostasis without relief can lead to dysregulation, thus attenuating organ systems and structures and causing significant damage {1]. Individuals who undergo psychological trauma endure an acute and transient experience, which results in minimal functional impairment, but some suffer from a chronic condition called posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals who have PTSD are likely to experience intense stress, …


The Effects Of Adolescent Chronic Mild Stress: In Female Wistar-Kyoto Rats, Anna Hallowell Aug 2020

The Effects Of Adolescent Chronic Mild Stress: In Female Wistar-Kyoto Rats, Anna Hallowell

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Despite years of research to understand under-lying mechanisms and develop more effective treatment approaches for mood disorders, numerous challenges exist. Many chronic stress models are used to study mood disorders, how-ever the majority have been established with adult males. This is problematic considering that affective disorders are more common in women, and generally develop during late adolescence. Studies have indicated fundamental behavioral, physiological, and neural differences between males and females in response to the same external stressors, furthering a need to develop sex-specific paradigms to accurately model the etiology of mood disorders in females. The Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat strain is …


Physiological And Behavioral Correlates Of Hif-1 Alpha Protein Levels In The Gulf Killifish, Fundulus Grandis, Jasmine Harris May 2020

Physiological And Behavioral Correlates Of Hif-1 Alpha Protein Levels In The Gulf Killifish, Fundulus Grandis, Jasmine Harris

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Although the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF) orchestrates molecular responses to low oxygen, the amount of HIF-1α protein expressed during hypoxia varies among species, individuals, and tissues. This study measured HIF-1α protein levels along with several physiological and behavioral variables in the estuarine fish Fundulus grandis under normoxia (> 7 mg l-1 dissolved oxygen) and hypoxia (1 mg l-1 dissolved oxygen). Fish under hypoxic conditions had higher tissue levels of HIF-1α, hematocrit, blood glucose, blood lactate, frequency of aquatic surface respiration (ASR), and lower activity than normoxic controls. Under hypoxia, HIF-1α abundance in gill was positively correlated with body …


The Relationship Between Glucocorticoids And The Humoral Immune Response To Mycoplasma Gallisepticum Challenges In Eastern Bluebirds, Joshua Smith May 2020

The Relationship Between Glucocorticoids And The Humoral Immune Response To Mycoplasma Gallisepticum Challenges In Eastern Bluebirds, Joshua Smith

Honors Theses

Numerous studies have examined relationships between adrenal glucocorticoids and the immune system’s ability to fight disease. The relationship can vary, with glucocorticoids having either stimulatory or inhibitory effects. The pathogenic bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) elicits an adaptive immune response in birds, in which B cells produce MG-specific antibodies to fight the infection and prevent reoccurrence. Previous research found that Eastern Bluebirds that produce the most antibodies in response to MG infection also have the highest glucocorticoid levels. This finding led to the current study investigating whether corticosterone, the primary glucocorticoid in birds, stimulates production of antibodies in response to immune …


Organizational Effects Of Exogenous Corticosterone On Vocal Development In A Wild Parrot, Rory Eggleston May 2020

Organizational Effects Of Exogenous Corticosterone On Vocal Development In A Wild Parrot, Rory Eggleston

Theses and Dissertations

Songbirds learn songs during a plastic phase in vocal development, similar to human vocal babbling. Research has focused on male song learning, a process influenced by gonadal steroids. Like humans, parrots are very plastic vocal learners and both sexes learn vocalizations throughout life. It is unclear how the endocrine system mediates environmental information with developing phenotypes in parrots. Corticosterone (CORT) is a sex-neutral hormone that can affect cognitive development, but its role in vocal development has not been experimentally tested in wild parrots. I quantified vocal babbling from nestling Green-rumped Parrotlets (Forpus passerinus) recorded in Venezuela. Nestlings received oral CORT-oil …


Tpr-Containing Proteins Control Protein Organization And Homeostasis For The Endoplasmic Reticulum, Jill Bradley-Graham Mar 2020

Tpr-Containing Proteins Control Protein Organization And Homeostasis For The Endoplasmic Reticulum, Jill Bradley-Graham

Doctoral Dissertations

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a complex, multifunctional organelle comprised of a continuous membrane and lumen that is organized into several functional regions. It plays various roles including protein translocation, folding, quality control, secretion, calcium signaling, and lipid biogenesis. Cellular protein homeostasis is maintained by a complicated chaperone network, and the largest functional family within this network consists of proteins containing tetratricopeptide repeats (TPRs). TPRs are well-studied structural motifs that mediate intermolecular protein-protein interactions, supporting interactions with a wide range of ligands or substrates. Nine TPR-containing proteins have been shown to localize to the ER and control protein organization and …


Investigating The Relationship Between Corticosterone And Glucose In A Reptile, Lorin A. Neuman-Lee, Spencer B. Hudson, Alison C. Webb, Susannah S. French Jan 2020

Investigating The Relationship Between Corticosterone And Glucose In A Reptile, Lorin A. Neuman-Lee, Spencer B. Hudson, Alison C. Webb, Susannah S. French

Biology Faculty Publications

The glucocorticoid hormone corticosterone (CORT) has classically been used in ecophysiological studies as a proxy for stress and energy mobilization, but rarely are CORT and the energy metabolites themselves concurrently measured. To examine CORT's role in mobilizing glucose in a wild reptile, we conducted two studies. The first study measured natural baseline and stress-induced blood-borne CORT and glucose levels in snakes during spring emergence and again when snakes return to the denning sites in autumn. The second study manipulated the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis in male snakes in the autumn by taking a baseline blood sample, then subjecting individuals to one …