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Biology

Florida Institute of Technology

Theses and Dissertations

2018

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Morphology Of The Olfactory Apparatus In Leptocephalus Larvae, Molly Ann Wightman Jul 2018

Morphology Of The Olfactory Apparatus In Leptocephalus Larvae, Molly Ann Wightman

Theses and Dissertations

Leptocephalus larvae are a unique larval form that unites the Elopomorph fishes. This larval form has morphological and cellular characteristics that differ from most other teleost fishes. The visual system of leptocephali rod-dominated retinas, leading to poor photopic vision and low visual acuity that would hinder feeding on planktonic prey. Recent studies indicate they feed marine snow, which is composed of mucilaginous materials, bacteria and plankton. Their low visual acuity raises the question of how these organisms find this gelatinous food source in the wild. I hypothesize that these larval fishes use chemoreception in order to find marine snow, and …


Spectral Sensitivity Of The Invasive Lionfish (Pterois Species) Retina And Its Capacity For Change In Response To Lighting Condition, Miranda Roseland Carroll May 2018

Spectral Sensitivity Of The Invasive Lionfish (Pterois Species) Retina And Its Capacity For Change In Response To Lighting Condition, Miranda Roseland Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

Since their first confirmed sighting in 1985 in the tropical western Atlantic, invasive lionfish of the genus Pterois have had a detrimental impact on marine systems in this region, including significant declines in native reef-fish populations. The environmental tolerances of these predators are very broad, allowing them to inhabit a variety of environments: they can withstand large ranges of depths, salinities, and temperatures. Understanding their physiological and behavioral characteristics can provide insight for the success of these invaders. Adaptable visual capabilities is one biological characteristic that may assist their invasive success. I hypothesized that lionfish possess retinal plasticity and can …


Identification Of Elements Essential For Replication Origin Activity In Escherichia Coli, Prassanna Rao May 2018

Identification Of Elements Essential For Replication Origin Activity In Escherichia Coli, Prassanna Rao

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing number of drug resistant pathogenic bacteria has created a growing health care crisis. Solving the crisis will require a number of solutions, among them being development of new antibiotics that target novel cell processes. Initiation of chromosomal DNA replication is one such unexploited process. Bacterial cells begin chromosome replication by building a nucleoprotein complex called the orisome which, unwinds replication origin DNA, and loads the replicative helicase. A greater understanding of how orisomes assemble, and how the assembly is regulated, should provide a source of druggable targets to be used in future antibiotic discovery efforts. However, although all …


The Effect Of Anthropogenic Activity On Sea Turtle Nesting And Habitat Usage In Florida, Usa, Raschelli Anna-Elizabeth Linz May 2018

The Effect Of Anthropogenic Activity On Sea Turtle Nesting And Habitat Usage In Florida, Usa, Raschelli Anna-Elizabeth Linz

Theses and Dissertations

Sea turtles have complex life histories that make them difficult to study. Using easily-accessible data, such as nesting and stranding occurrences, can help to efficiently elucidate driving factors in the population dynamics of these imperiled species. The overall goal of the present study was to assess the efficacy of sea turtle protective measures in Florida. To accomplish this goal, two analyses were conducted. The first analysis sought to describe the relationship between nesting numbers of three species of marine turtles, the loggerhead (Caretta caretta), green (Chelonia mydas), and leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), common in Florida and various anthropogenic and environmental variables. …


Analysis Of A Functional Heterologous Chromosomal Replication Origin Transplant In E. Coli, Rohit Pradip Kadam Apr 2018

Analysis Of A Functional Heterologous Chromosomal Replication Origin Transplant In E. Coli, Rohit Pradip Kadam

Theses and Dissertations

To ensure that all cells replicate their genomes faithfully before they divide, the initiation step of chromosome replication must be tightly regulated during the cell cycle. In bacteria, new rounds of replication are triggered by the assembly of a higher order protein complex, termed the orisome, that unwinds a well-defined origin (oriC) region on the circular chromosome, and prepares it for new replication forks. Orisomes comprise multiple copies of a highly conserved initiator protein, DnaA, and instructions for ordered orisome assembly are encoded into the oriC nucleotide sequence of nearly all bacteria as specifically-spaced clusters of 9 base pair (bp) …