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Fabrication Of Forcespinning® Nanofibers Incorporating Nopal Extract, Cristobal Rodriguez, Victoria Padilla, Karen Lozano, J. Andrew Mcdonald, Luis Materon, Alejandra Chapa, Fariha Ahmad, Carlos Trevino De Leon, Robert Gilkerson Dec 2020

Fabrication Of Forcespinning® Nanofibers Incorporating Nopal Extract, Cristobal Rodriguez, Victoria Padilla, Karen Lozano, J. Andrew Mcdonald, Luis Materon, Alejandra Chapa, Fariha Ahmad, Carlos Trevino De Leon, Robert Gilkerson

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, nanofibers composed of Opuntia cochenillifera nopal mucilage (N) extract combined with chitosan (CH) and pullulan (PL) (N/CH/PL) were produced via Forcespinning®. The developed nonwoven composite membranes are comprised of long, continuous, and homogenous fibers with fiber average diameter varying between 251±77 nm and 406±127 nm depending on the concentration of N. After crosslinking, the developed membranes were highly stable in water. The water absorption capacity of the N/CH/PL composite nanofiber membranes was shown to be 65% higher when compared to the CH/PL nanofiber membranes. Nopal dipcoated membranes show inhibition of gram-negative Escherichia coli, indicating antibacterial properties. These …


Effects Of Urbanization On Buff-Bellied Hummingbirds In Subtropical South Texas Subtropical South Texas, John S. Brush, Timothy Brush, Alexis Racelis Dec 2020

Effects Of Urbanization On Buff-Bellied Hummingbirds In Subtropical South Texas Subtropical South Texas, John S. Brush, Timothy Brush, Alexis Racelis

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urbanization and its associated processes affect wildlife in a variety of ways. Understanding how this increasing land use type affects biological communities is important for conservation efforts. Hummingbirds (family Trochilidae) are one taxon that has showed positive responses to varying intensities of urban development. We surveyed for Buff-bellied Hummingbird ( Amazilia yucatanensis), a species on its northern range-limits, in urban woodlands, residential, natural, and revegetated habitats. We examined how urbanization is affecting Buff-bellied Hummingbird populations in South Texas with point- count surveys and GIS analysis. We found that Buff-bellied Hummingbirds had greater relative abundances in urban settings when compared with …


Compost And Biochar To Promote Soil Biological Activities Under Sweet Potatoes Cultivation In A Subtropical Semiarid Region, Josabeth Navarro, Jahdiel Salazar, James Jihoon Kang, Jason Parsons, Chu-Lin Cheng, Alexandria Castillo, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira Nov 2020

Compost And Biochar To Promote Soil Biological Activities Under Sweet Potatoes Cultivation In A Subtropical Semiarid Region, Josabeth Navarro, Jahdiel Salazar, James Jihoon Kang, Jason Parsons, Chu-Lin Cheng, Alexandria Castillo, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

South Texas is located in a subtropical semiarid climate, and due to high temperature and irregular precipitation, farmers opt to leave their fields fallow during the summer months jeopardizing overall soil health. We evaluated whether sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivation coupled with drip irrigation could restore soil biological activities compared with bare fallow. Additionally, because sweet potatoes have high demand of soil nutrients, especially potassium (K), we evaluated the nutrient supply of locally sourced soil amendments. Sweet potato was cultivated during summer 2018 in McAllen, Texas, under control (no fertilizer), NPK (synthetic fertilizer), RC (yard-waste compost), and AC (compost produced …


Characterization Of Pathogen Airborne Inoculum Density By Information Theoretic Analysis Of Spore Trap Time Series Data, Robin A. Choudhury, Neil Mcroberts Nov 2020

Characterization Of Pathogen Airborne Inoculum Density By Information Theoretic Analysis Of Spore Trap Time Series Data, Robin A. Choudhury, Neil Mcroberts

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a previous study, air sampling using vortex air samplers combined with species-specific amplification of pathogen DNA was carried out over two years in four or five locations in the Salinas Valley of California. The resulting time series data for the abundance of pathogen DNA trapped per day displayed complex dynamics with features of both deterministic (chaotic) and stochastic uncertainty. Methods of nonlinear time series analysis developed for the reconstruction of low dimensional attractors provided new insights into the complexity of pathogen abundance data. In particular, the analyses suggested that the length of time series data that it is practical …


Poorly Vetted Conservation Ranks Can Be More Wrong Than Right: Lessons From Texas Land Snails, Kathryn E. Perez, Benjamin T. Hutchins, Jeffrey C. Nekola Nov 2020

Poorly Vetted Conservation Ranks Can Be More Wrong Than Right: Lessons From Texas Land Snails, Kathryn E. Perez, Benjamin T. Hutchins, Jeffrey C. Nekola

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Setting priorities for scarce conservation dollars requires an accurate accounting of the most vulnerable species. For many invertebrates, lack of taxonomic expertise, low detectability, and funding limitations are impediments to this goal, with conservation ranks usually based on expert opinion, the published literature, and museum records. Because of biases and inaccuracies in these data, they may not provide an accurate basis for conservation ranks, especially when compared to de novo field surveys. We assessed this issue by comparative examination of these data sources in re-ranking the conservation status of all 254 land snail taxa reported from Texas, USA. We confirmed …


Using The Rdna Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 To Identify The Invasive Pest Rhagoletis Cerasi (Diptera: Tephritidae) In North America, Norman B. Barr, Daniel Garza, Lisa A. Ledezma, David A. Salinas Nov 2020

Using The Rdna Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 To Identify The Invasive Pest Rhagoletis Cerasi (Diptera: Tephritidae) In North America, Norman B. Barr, Daniel Garza, Lisa A. Ledezma, David A. Salinas

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The cherry-infesting fruit fly Rhagoletis cerasi Loew is a significant commercial pest in Europe that has recently invaded North America. To date, it has been trapped only in Canada and northwestern counties of New York. It has the potential to spread further and threaten production and movement of cherry commodities. Timely diagnosis of the pest will facilitate surveys and quick response to new detections. Adult morphology of the pest is distinct from other flies in North America. However, when flies are significantly damaged on traps or the immature life stages are found in fruits, molecular methods of identification are important …


Host Density Dependence And Environmental Factors Affecting Laurel Wilt Disease Incidence, Robin A. Choudhury, H. L. Er, M. Hughes, J. A. Smith, G. E. Pruett, J. Konkol, R. C. Ploetz, J. J. Marois, K. A. Marois, A. H. C. Van Bruggen Nov 2020

Host Density Dependence And Environmental Factors Affecting Laurel Wilt Disease Incidence, Robin A. Choudhury, H. L. Er, M. Hughes, J. A. Smith, G. E. Pruett, J. Konkol, R. C. Ploetz, J. J. Marois, K. A. Marois, A. H. C. Van Bruggen

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Host size, density, and distribution, in addition to climate, can affect the likelihood a pathogen will invade and saturate landscapes. Laurel wilt, caused by the vector‐borne pathogen Raffaelea lauricola, has devastated populations of native Lauraceae in the Southeastern US, and continues to spread. We surveyed 87 plots in six coastal islands in South Carolina, Georgia, and North Florida, and one inland site (Archbold Biological Station) in South Florida for laurel wilt‐affected and non‐affected individual plants belonging to the genus Persea. The coastal island sites were surveyed once in 2008 or 2009, and the inland site was surveyed eight …


Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca Sexta) Oral Secretion Elicits Reactive Oxygen Species In Isolated Tomato Protoplasts, Akanksha Gandhi, Rupesh R. Kariyat, Cruz Chappa, Mandeep Tayal, Nirakar Sahoo Nov 2020

Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca Sexta) Oral Secretion Elicits Reactive Oxygen Species In Isolated Tomato Protoplasts, Akanksha Gandhi, Rupesh R. Kariyat, Cruz Chappa, Mandeep Tayal, Nirakar Sahoo

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Plants are under constant attack by a suite of insect herbivores. Over millions of years of coexistence, plants have evolved the ability to sense insect feeding via herbivore-associated elicitors in oral secretions, which can mobilize defense responses. However, herbivore-associated elicitors and the intrinsic downstream modulator of such interactions remain less understood. In this study, we show that tobacco hornworm caterpillar (Manduca sexta) oral secretion (OS) induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) protoplasts. By using a dye-based ROS imaging approach, our study shows that application of plant-fed (PF) M. sexta OS generates significantly higher ROS while artificial diet-fed …


Lrrc8 Family Proteins Within Lysosomes Regulate Cellular Osmoregulation And Enhance Cell Survival To Multiple Physiological Stresses, Ping Li, Meiqin Hu, Ce Wang, Xinghua Feng, Zhuangzhuang Zhao, Ying Yang, Nirakar Sahoo, Mingxue Gu, Yexin Yang, Shiyu Xiao Nov 2020

Lrrc8 Family Proteins Within Lysosomes Regulate Cellular Osmoregulation And Enhance Cell Survival To Multiple Physiological Stresses, Ping Li, Meiqin Hu, Ce Wang, Xinghua Feng, Zhuangzhuang Zhao, Ying Yang, Nirakar Sahoo, Mingxue Gu, Yexin Yang, Shiyu Xiao

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

LRRC8 family proteins on the plasma membrane play a critical role in cellular osmoregulation by forming volume-regulated anion channels (VRACs) necessary to prevent necrotic cell death.We demonstrate that intracellular LRRC8 proteins acting within lysosomes also play an essential role in cellular osmoregulation. LRRC8 proteins on lysosome membranes generate large lysosomal volume-regulated anion channel (Lyso-VRAC) currents in response to low cytoplasmic ionic strength conditions. When a double-leucine L706L707 motif at the C terminus of LRRC8A was mutated to alanines, normal plasma membrane VRAC currents were still observed, but Lyso-VRAC currents were absent. We used this targeting mutant, as well as pharmacological …


Marine Wild-Capture Fisheries After Nuclear War, Kim J. N. Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Ryan F. Heneghan, Eric Galbraith, Charles G. Bardeen, Joshua Coupe, Jonas Jägermeyr, Nicole S. Lovenduski, August Luna, Alan Robock, Jessica Stevens, Samantha Stevenson, Owen B. Toon, Lili Xia Nov 2020

Marine Wild-Capture Fisheries After Nuclear War, Kim J. N. Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Ryan F. Heneghan, Eric Galbraith, Charles G. Bardeen, Joshua Coupe, Jonas Jägermeyr, Nicole S. Lovenduski, August Luna, Alan Robock, Jessica Stevens, Samantha Stevenson, Owen B. Toon, Lili Xia

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nuclear war, beyond its devastating direct impacts, is expected to cause global climatic perturbations through injections of soot into the upper atmosphere. Reduced temperature and sunlight could drive unprecedented reductions in agricultural production, endangering global food security. However, the effects of nuclear war on marine wild-capture fisheries, which significantly contribute to the global animal protein and micronutrient supply, remain unexplored. We simulate the climatic effects of six war scenarios on fish biomass and catch globally, using a state-of-the-art Earth system model and global process-based fisheries model. We also simulate how either rapidly increased fish demand (driven by food shortages) or …


Greenhouse Gas Emission Efficiencies Of World Countries, Levent Kutlu Oct 2020

Greenhouse Gas Emission Efficiencies Of World Countries, Levent Kutlu

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications and Presentations

Greenhouse gas emissions have increased rapidly since the industrial revolution. This has led to an unnatural increase in the global surface temperature, and to other changes in our environment. Acknowledging this observation, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change started an international environmental treaty. This treaty was extended by Kyoto protocol, which was adopted on 11 December 1997. Using the stochastic frontier analysis, we analyze the efficiencies of countries in terms of achieving the lowest greenhouse gas emission levels per GDP output in the years between 1990–2015. We find that the average greenhouse gas emission efficiencies of world countries …


Brown Spot In Table Grape Redglobe Controlled In Study With Sulfur Dioxide And Temperature Treatments, Cassandra A. Young, Robin A. Choudhury, Carlos H. Crisosto, W. Douglas Gubler Oct 2020

Brown Spot In Table Grape Redglobe Controlled In Study With Sulfur Dioxide And Temperature Treatments, Cassandra A. Young, Robin A. Choudhury, Carlos H. Crisosto, W. Douglas Gubler

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Brown spot is a postharvest disease of grapes caused by Cladosporium species in the San Joaquin Valley of California. It spreads during cold storage and transport, resulting in severe economic losses to late table grape cultivars, which are grown mainly for export to countries such as China and Mexico. We examined the effect of temperature and sulfur dioxide (SO2) treatments on fungal growth and infection of Redglobe berries by three Cladosporium species: Cladosporium ramotenellum, C. cladosporioides and C. limoniforme. Redglobe is especially popular for export. Fungal colonies growing on potato dextrose agar in petri plates stored at −2°C grew slower …


Effect Of Additional Weight On Human Squat Exercise Stability: Ground Reaction Forces And Centers Of Pressure, Jose Galarza, Dumitru Carantu Oct 2020

Effect Of Additional Weight On Human Squat Exercise Stability: Ground Reaction Forces And Centers Of Pressure, Jose Galarza, Dumitru Carantu

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The main focus of this work is to investigate the effect of weight on the stability of human squat exercise. The squat exercise is a common daily activity. Experiments are conducted using one human subject. A VICON motion analysis system integrated with Force Plates is utilized for these experiments. An experimental protocol is developed and followed. This work analyzes the time series of the normal component of the ground reaction forces and each coordinate of the center of pressure. These time series are used to estimate the Lyapunov Exponents using Rosenstein method. MATLAB software package is used for this investigation. …


Deep Sea Isopods From The Western Mediterranean: Distribution And Habitat, Joan E. Cartes, Diego F. Figueroa Oct 2020

Deep Sea Isopods From The Western Mediterranean: Distribution And Habitat, Joan E. Cartes, Diego F. Figueroa

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Isopods are a highly diversified group of deep-sea fauna, with a wide variety of shapes which must reflect a similar great variety of adaptations to the deep environments. The deep Mediterranean, however, has a low diversity of isopods related to its oligotrophy, the thermal stability of deep-water masses (∼12.8 °C below 150 - 200 m) and rather homogeneous geomorphology. The main factor defining isopod habitats in the Balearic Basin is insularity vs mainland influence. Desmosomatidae and Ischnomesidae, examples of epibenthic species (with lack of paddle-shaped legs and non/low-natatory capacity) are mainly linked to mainland areas with higher % organic matter …


Nuclear And Chloroplast Dnas Reveal Diverse Origins And Mis-Identifications Of Juniperus Cultivars From Windsor Gardens, Uk, Part 3 Of 3, Robert P. Adams, Sam T. Johnson, John Anderson, Keith Rushforth, Nicolas Valentin, Andrea E. Schwarzbach, Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev Sep 2020

Nuclear And Chloroplast Dnas Reveal Diverse Origins And Mis-Identifications Of Juniperus Cultivars From Windsor Gardens, Uk, Part 3 Of 3, Robert P. Adams, Sam T. Johnson, John Anderson, Keith Rushforth, Nicolas Valentin, Andrea E. Schwarzbach, Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ploidy was determined for 15 plants labeled as Juniperus squamata at the Windsor Gardens, UK and revealed 12 were tetraploids (2n=4x=44) and 3 were diploids (2n=2x=22). nrDNA (ITS) and cp DNA sequencing the tetraploids found: 4 J. squamata (4x); 4 J. tibetica (4x) x J. squamata (4x); 2 J. sabina var. balkanensis (4x) x J. squamata (4x); and one J. chinensis var. sargentii (4x) x J. squamata (4x). Sequencing the 3 diploids revealed: 2 J. pingii (2x) x J. pingii (2x); and 1 J. pingii (2x)? x J. komarovii(2x)? Ploidy analyses of 18 additional cultivars, putatively from Juniperus davurica, J. …


Assessing The Influence Of International Environmental Treaty Secretariats Using A Relational Network Approach, Andrew M. Song, Owen Temby, Dongkyu Kim, Gordon M. Hickey Sep 2020

Assessing The Influence Of International Environmental Treaty Secretariats Using A Relational Network Approach, Andrew M. Song, Owen Temby, Dongkyu Kim, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The influential role of international treaty secretariats in coordinating bureaucracies across jurisdictional boundaries has been highlighted in recent years. While we now better understand how their influence occurs, the field still faces a substantial difficulty in answering the basic quantitative question of “how influential?” By employing network analysis, we devised and tested a survey to quantify secretariat influence within an international environmental regime. We applied the survey tool to two transboundary fisheries governance networks in North America and here focus on the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) as our primary case study. The results demonstrate a high ability of treaty …


Host Plant Defense Produces Species-Specific Alterations To Flight Muscle Protein Structure And Flight-Related Fitness Traits Of Two Armyworms, Scott L. Portman, Gary W. Felton, Rupesh R. Kariyat, James H. Marden Aug 2020

Host Plant Defense Produces Species-Specific Alterations To Flight Muscle Protein Structure And Flight-Related Fitness Traits Of Two Armyworms, Scott L. Portman, Gary W. Felton, Rupesh R. Kariyat, James H. Marden

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Insects manifest phenotypic plasticity in their development and behavior in response to plant defenses, via molecular mechanisms that produce tissue-specific changes. Phenotypic changes might vary between species that differ in their preferred hosts and these effects could extend beyond larval stages. To test this,we manipulated the diet of southern armyworm(SAW; Spodoptera eridania) and fall armyworm (FAW; Spodoptera frugiperda) using a tomato mutant for jasmonic acid plant defense pathway (def1), and wild-type plants, and then quantified gene expression of Troponin t (Tnt) and flightmusclemetabolismof the adult insects. Differences in Tnt spliceform ratios in insect flight muscles correlate with changes to flight …


Imidacloprid Movement Into Fungal Conidia Is Lethal To Mycophagous Beetles, Robin A. Choudhury, Andrew M. Sutherland, Matt J. Hengel, Michael P. Parrella, W. Douglass Gubler Aug 2020

Imidacloprid Movement Into Fungal Conidia Is Lethal To Mycophagous Beetles, Robin A. Choudhury, Andrew M. Sutherland, Matt J. Hengel, Michael P. Parrella, W. Douglass Gubler

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Applications of systemic pesticides can have unexpected direct and indirect effects on nontarget organisms, producing ecosystem-level impacts. We investigated whether a systemic insecticide (imidacloprid) could be absorbed by a plant pathogenic fungus infecting treated plants and whether the absorbed levels were high enough to have detrimental effects on the survival of a mycophagous beetle. Beetle larvae fed on these fungi were used to assess the survival effects of powdery mildew and imidacloprid in a factorial design. Fungal conidia were collected from treated and untreated plants and were tested for the presence and concentration of imidacloprid. The survival of beetles fed …


Topological And System‑Level Protein Interaction Network (Pin) Analyses To Deduce Molecular Mechanism Of Curcumin, Anupam Dhasmana, Swati Uniyal, Anukriti -, Vivek Kumar Kashyap, Pallavi Somvanshi, Meenu Gupta, Uma Bhardwaj, Meena Jaggi, Murali M. Yallapu, Shafiul Haque, Subhash C. Chauhan Jul 2020

Topological And System‑Level Protein Interaction Network (Pin) Analyses To Deduce Molecular Mechanism Of Curcumin, Anupam Dhasmana, Swati Uniyal, Anukriti -, Vivek Kumar Kashyap, Pallavi Somvanshi, Meenu Gupta, Uma Bhardwaj, Meena Jaggi, Murali M. Yallapu, Shafiul Haque, Subhash C. Chauhan

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Curcumin is an important bioactive component of turmeric and also one of the important natural products, which has been investigated extensively. The precise mode of action of curcumin and its impact on system level protein networks are still not well studied. To identify the curcumin governed regulatory action on protein interaction network (PIN), an interectome was created based on 788 key proteins, extracted from PubMed literatures, and constructed by using STRING and Cytoscape programs. The PIN rewired by curcumin was a scale-free, extremely linked biological system. MCODE plug-in was used for sub-modulization analysis, wherein we identified 25 modules; ClueGo plug-in …


Reaching 1.5 And 2.0 ◦C Global Surface Temperature Targets Using Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering, Simone Tilmes, Douglas G. Macmartin, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Leo Van Kampenhout, Laura Muntjewerf, Lili Xia, Cheryl S. Harrison, Kristen M. Krumhardt, Michael J. Mills, Ben Kravitz, Alan Robock Jul 2020

Reaching 1.5 And 2.0 ◦C Global Surface Temperature Targets Using Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering, Simone Tilmes, Douglas G. Macmartin, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Leo Van Kampenhout, Laura Muntjewerf, Lili Xia, Cheryl S. Harrison, Kristen M. Krumhardt, Michael J. Mills, Ben Kravitz, Alan Robock

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

A new set of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering (SAG) model experiments has been performed with Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM6) that are based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) overshoot scenario (SSP5-34-OS) as a baseline scenario to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2.0 ◦C above 1850–1900 conditions. The overshoot scenario allows us to applying a peak-shaving scenario that reduces the needed duration and amount of SAG application compared to a high forcing scenario. In addition, a feedback algorithm identifies the needed amount of sulfur dioxide injections in …


Biological Flora Of The Tropical And Subtropical Intertidal Zone: Literature Review For Rhizophora Mangle L., Hudson R. Deyoe, Robert I. Lonard, Frank W. Judd, Richard Stalter, Ilka Feller Jul 2020

Biological Flora Of The Tropical And Subtropical Intertidal Zone: Literature Review For Rhizophora Mangle L., Hudson R. Deyoe, Robert I. Lonard, Frank W. Judd, Richard Stalter, Ilka Feller

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rhizophora mangle L. is a tropical and subtropical mangrove species that occurs as a dominant tree species in the intertidal zone of low-energy shorelines. Rhizophora mangle plays an important role in coastal zones as habitat for a wide range of organisms of intertidal food webs, as a natural barrier to coastal erosion, and as carbon sequestration. A review of mangrove literature has been performed, but a review specifically on red mangroves has not. The approach was to cover a broad range of topics with a focus on topics that have seen significant work since the 1970s. This review includes a …


Overexpression Of Strigolactone-Associated Genes Exerts Fine-Tuning Selection On Soybean Rhizosphere Bacterial And Fungal Microbiome, Fang Liu, John Hollis Rice, Valeria Lopes, Parwinder Grewal, Sarah L. Lebeis, Tarek Hewezi, Margaret E. Staton Jul 2020

Overexpression Of Strigolactone-Associated Genes Exerts Fine-Tuning Selection On Soybean Rhizosphere Bacterial And Fungal Microbiome, Fang Liu, John Hollis Rice, Valeria Lopes, Parwinder Grewal, Sarah L. Lebeis, Tarek Hewezi, Margaret E. Staton

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Strigolactones are a recently discovered class of carotenoid-derived plant hormones with a wide variety of functions, including acting as signaling molecules in the rhizosphere to promote arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization and parasitic seed germination. To determine whether strigolactones influence the recruitment of microbes to the rhizosphere, we characterized both bacterial and fungal communities in response to the overexpression of genes involved in strigolactone biosynthesis (MAX1d) and signaling perception (D14 and MAX2a) in soybean (Glycine max). The amplicon sequencing-based results suggest that strigolactone overexpression lines had altered soybean rhizosphere bacteria composition at both the community …


Long Distance Gene Flow Facilitated By Bird-Dispersed Seeds In Wind-Pollinated Species: A Story Of Hybridization And Introgression Between Juniperus Ashei And J. Ovata Told By Nrdna And Cpdna, Robert P. Adams, Sam T. Johnson, Andrea E. Schwarzbach Jun 2020

Long Distance Gene Flow Facilitated By Bird-Dispersed Seeds In Wind-Pollinated Species: A Story Of Hybridization And Introgression Between Juniperus Ashei And J. Ovata Told By Nrdna And Cpdna, Robert P. Adams, Sam T. Johnson, Andrea E. Schwarzbach

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

nrDNA and cpDNA were sequenced of J. ashei and J. ovata from populations throughout their ranges. No J. ashei populations were found to be pure in their nrDNA for every tree, however all J. ashei trees in every population contained only the pure J. ashei chloroplast type. Populations of J. ovata in trans-Pecos Texas were almost pure in both nrDNA and cp DNA. Several plants in the J. ashei range contained J. ovata-type nrDNA (White Cliffs, AR, 3/10); Ranger, TX (1/5); Waco, TX (1/12). Every J ashei population contained at least 1 plant with hybrid (heterozygous) nrDNA and 3 J. …


Potential Effects Of Climate Change On The Geographic Distribution Of The Endangered Plant Species Manihot Walkerae, Gisel Garza, Armida Rivera, Crystian Sadel Venegas Barrera, Jose Guadalupe Martinez-Avalos, Jon Dale, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo Jun 2020

Potential Effects Of Climate Change On The Geographic Distribution Of The Endangered Plant Species Manihot Walkerae, Gisel Garza, Armida Rivera, Crystian Sadel Venegas Barrera, Jose Guadalupe Martinez-Avalos, Jon Dale, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Walker’s Manihot, Manihot walkerae, is an endangered plant that is endemic to the Tamaulipan thornscrub ecoregion of extreme southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. M. walkerae populations are highly fragmented and are found on both protected public lands and private property. Habitat loss and competition by invasive species are the most detrimental threats for M. walkerae; however, the effect of climate change on M. walkerae’s geographic distribution remains unexplored and could result in further range restrictions. Our objectives are to evaluate the potential effects of climate change on the distribution of M. walkerae and assess the usefulness of natural protected areas …


Toxin Transcripts In Crotalus Atrox Venom And In Silico Structures Of Toxins, Ying Jia, Ivan Lopez, Paulina Kowalski Jun 2020

Toxin Transcripts In Crotalus Atrox Venom And In Silico Structures Of Toxins, Ying Jia, Ivan Lopez, Paulina Kowalski

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) is a common and widespread North American pit viper species, and its venom possesses medical applications. In this research, we identified 14 of the most common transcripts encoding 11 major venom toxins including transcripts for a three-finger toxin (3FTx) from the crude venom of C. atrox. In silico three-dimensional (3D) structures of 9 venom toxins were predicted by using deduced toxin amino acid sequences and a computer programme-MODELLER. The accuracy of all predicted toxin structures was evaluated by five stereochemical structure parameters including discrete optimised protein energy (DOPE) score, root mean square deviation (RMSD), …


Benchmarking And Parameter Sensitivity Of Physiological And Vegetation Dynamics Using The Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (Fates) At Barro Colorado Island, Panama, Charles D. Koven, Ryan G. Knox, Rosie A. Fisher, Jeffrey Q. Chambers, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Stuart J. Davies, Matteo Detto Jun 2020

Benchmarking And Parameter Sensitivity Of Physiological And Vegetation Dynamics Using The Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (Fates) At Barro Colorado Island, Panama, Charles D. Koven, Ryan G. Knox, Rosie A. Fisher, Jeffrey Q. Chambers, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Stuart J. Davies, Matteo Detto

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Plant functional traits determine vegetation responses to environmental variation, but variation in trait values is large, even within a single site. Likewise, uncertainty in how these traits map to Earth system feedbacks is large. We use a vegetation demographic model (VDM), the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES), to explore parameter sensitivity of model predictions, and comparison to observations, at a tropical forest site: Barro Colorado Island in Panama. We define a single 12-dimensional distribution of plant trait variation, derived primarily from observations in Panama, and define plant functional types (PFTs) as random draws from this distribution. We compare several …


Effect Of Pecan Variety And The Method Of Extraction On The Antimicrobial Activity Of Pecan Shell Extracts Against Different Foodborne Pathogens And Their Efficacy On Food Matrices, Veerachandra K. Yemmireddy, Cameron Cason, Juan Moreira, Achyut Adhikari Jun 2020

Effect Of Pecan Variety And The Method Of Extraction On The Antimicrobial Activity Of Pecan Shell Extracts Against Different Foodborne Pathogens And Their Efficacy On Food Matrices, Veerachandra K. Yemmireddy, Cameron Cason, Juan Moreira, Achyut Adhikari

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The shells of pecans are a rich source of bioactive compounds with potential inhibitory activity against various pathogenic microorganisms. This study investigated the antimicrobial activity of pecan shell extracts as effected by the type of cultivar and the method of extraction against various foodborne bacterial pathogens. Defatted shell powders of 19 different pecan cultivars were subjected to aqueous and ethanolic extraction (1:20 w/v) procedures, respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of lyophilized pecan shell extracts dissolved in deionized water containing 5% DMSO (v/v) were determined against multiple strains of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica, and …


Impact Of Cover Crops On Insect Community Dynamics In Organic Farming, Lili Martinez, Pushpa Soti, Jasleen Kaur, Alexis Racelis, Rupesh R. Kariyat Jun 2020

Impact Of Cover Crops On Insect Community Dynamics In Organic Farming, Lili Martinez, Pushpa Soti, Jasleen Kaur, Alexis Racelis, Rupesh R. Kariyat

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Manipulating cover crops as an integrated pest management strategy has recently gained popularity in both traditional and organic agroecosystems. However, little information is available for producers to make informed decisions about cover crop selection, management, and their potential use as a pest management tool. To address this, we conducted a two-year, four-season field experiment on the potential of various cover crops during the summer seasons of both years, followed by monocultures of cash crops during winters. We hypothesized that the cover crop treatments would attract beneficial insects and repel damaging herbivores in a species-specific manner, and the insect community dynamics …


Potential Predictability Of Net Primary Production In The Ocean, Kristen M. Krumhardt, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Matthew C. Long, J. Y. Luo, K. Lindsay, S. Yeager, Cheryl S. Harrison Jun 2020

Potential Predictability Of Net Primary Production In The Ocean, Kristen M. Krumhardt, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Matthew C. Long, J. Y. Luo, K. Lindsay, S. Yeager, Cheryl S. Harrison

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interannual variations in marine net primary production (NPP) contribute to the variability of available living marine resources, as well as influence critical carbon cycle processes. Here we provide a global overview of near-term (1 to 10 years) potential predictability of marine NPP using a novel set of initialized retrospective decadal forecasts from an Earth System Model. Interannual variations in marine NPP are potentially predictable in many areas of the ocean 1 to 3 years in advance, from temperate waters to the tropics, showing a substantial improvement over a simple persistence forecast. However, some regions, such as the subpolar Southern Ocean, …


Plant-Derived Natural Biomolecule Picein Attenuates Menadione Induced Oxidative Stress On Neuroblastoma Cell Mitochondria, Kavindra Kumar Kesari, Anupam Dhasmana, Shruti Shandilya, Neeraj Prabhakar, Ahmed Shaukat, Jinze Dou, Jessica M. Rosenholm, Tapani Vuorinen, Janne Ruokolainen Jun 2020

Plant-Derived Natural Biomolecule Picein Attenuates Menadione Induced Oxidative Stress On Neuroblastoma Cell Mitochondria, Kavindra Kumar Kesari, Anupam Dhasmana, Shruti Shandilya, Neeraj Prabhakar, Ahmed Shaukat, Jinze Dou, Jessica M. Rosenholm, Tapani Vuorinen, Janne Ruokolainen

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Several bioactive compounds are in use for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Historically, willow (salix sp.) bark has been an important source of salisylic acid and other natural compounds with anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic properties. Among these, picein isolated from hot water extract of willow bark, has been found to act as a natural secondary metabolite antioxidant. The aim of this study was to investigate the unrevealed pharmacological action of picein. In silico studies were utilized to direct the investigation towards the neuroprotection abilities of picein. Our in vitro studies demonstrate the neuroprotective properties …