Digital Commons Network^™

Development And Validation Of An Edna Protocol For Monitoring Endemic Asian Spiny Frogs In The Himalayan Region Of Pakistan, Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Rais, Ayesha Akram, Maggie R. Williams, Kenneth F. Kellner, Syed A. Hashsham, Drew R. Davis

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

Wildlife monitoring programs are instrumental for the assessment of species, habitat status, and for the management of factors affecting them. This is particularly important for species found in freshwater ecosystems, such as amphibians, as they have higher estimated extinction rates than terrestrial species. We developed and validated two species-specific environmental DNA (eDNA) protocols and applied them in the field to detect the Hazara Torrent Frog (Allopaa hazarensis) and Murree Hills Frog (Nanorana vicina). Additionally, we compared eDNA surveys with visual encounter surveys and estimated site occupancy. eDNA surveys resulted in higher occurrence probabilities for both A. …

Rare Degs1 Variant Significantly Alters De Novo Ceramide Synthesis Pathway, Nicholas B. Blackburn, Laura F. Michael, Peter J. Meikle, Juan M. Peralta, Marian Mosior, Scott Mcahren, Hai H. Bui, Melissa A. Bellinger, Corey Giles, Satish Kumar, Ana C. Leandro, Marcio Almeida, Jacquelyn M. Weir, Michael C. Mahaney, Thomas D. Dyer, Laura Almasy, John L. Vandeberg, Sarah Williams-Blangero, David C. Glahn, Ravindranath Duggirala, Mark Kowala, John Blangero, Joanne E. Curran

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

The de novo ceramide synthesis pathway is essential to human biology and health but genetic influences remain unexplored. The core function of this pathway is the generation of biologically active ceramide from its precursor, dihydroceramide. Dihydroceramides have diverse, often protective, biological roles; conversely, increased ceramide levels are biomarkers of complex disease. To explore the genetics of the ceramide synthesis pathway, we searched for deleterious nonsynonymous variants in the genomes of 1,020 Mexican Americans from extended pedigrees. We identified a Hispanic ancestry−specific rare functional variant, L175Q, in DEGS1, a key enzyme in the pathway that converts dihydroceramide to ceramide. This amino …

Obesity And Obesogenic Growth Are Both Highly Heritable And Modified By Diet In A Nonhuman Primate Model, The African Green Monkey (Chlorocebus Aethiops Sabaeus), C. A. Schmitt, S. K. Service, A. J. Jasinska, Thomas D. Dyer, M. J. Jorgensen, R. M. Cantor, G. M. Weinstock, John Blangero, J. R. Kaplan, N. B. Freimer

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

OBJECTIVE: In humans, the ontogeny of obesity throughout the life course and the genetics underlying it has been historically difficult to study. We compared, in a non-human primate model, the lifelong growth trajectories of obese and non-obese adults to assess the heritability of and map potential genomic regions implicated in growth and obesity.

STUDY POPULATION: A total of 905 African green monkeys, or vervets (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) (472 females, 433 males) from a pedigreed captive colony. METHODS: We measured fasted body weight (BW), crown-to-rump length (CRL), body-mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) from 2000 to 2015. We used a …