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Variation In Leaf Morphology Of An Alpine Shrub Community Along Environmental Gradients, Abdulssalam Khafsha

Masters Theses

Mountains represent complex environment gradients which strongly affect local temperature regimes and rainfall. These changes in climate conditions drive a diversity of plant responses. As alpine environments are expected to change dramatically in response to climate change, understanding plant responses to environmental variation is critical in these environments. Although they are a critical component of alpine communities, the environmental responses of shrubs have been much less examined than trees, representing an important knowledge gap. Leaves, as the primary photosynthetic organs on plants, would be expected to respond strongly to local climate conditions. In this study, I documented how the leaf …

Medicinal Properties Of The Araliaceae, With Emphasis On Chemicals Affecting Nerve Cells, Rana Alharbi

Masters Theses

In recent times, medicinal plants have become the focus of scientists and research. However, many have used traditional medicine to take advantage of plant extracts to treat many diseases, especially neurological diseases. Various central nervous system receptors have been shown to associate with plant extracts influencing the pharmacology and in this manner conceivably assuming a role in human sickness and treatment. For instance, extracts from Cussonia paniculata Eckl. & Zeyh targeted several early nervous and mental disease, and Kalopanax pictus has been traditionally used for the treatment of rheumatoidal arthritis, nerve pain and diabetes mellitus.

In the present study, we …

Context Dependency Of Invasion Impacts On The Controllers Of Invasibility In Microstegium Vimineum, Scott Vincent Janis

Masters Theses

Although plant invasions are of major conservation concern, understanding of the natural controls on invasion and their impacts is largely limited to static observational studies or artificially manipulated systems. Linking patterns of invasion with subsequent impacts in natural systems is necessary to fully assess invasion causes and consequences. Therefore, I employed a long-term approach to sequentially assess the controls on invasion and their subsequent impacts in a self-assembled system for the highly invasive annual grass Microstegium vimineum. I modeled likely factors contributing to the probability of invasion and local invasion success of a natural invasion of M. vimineum in a …

Haplotype Diversity And Population Genetic Structure Of Antistrophus Gall Wasps Associated With Two Silphium Species And Implication For Host Mediated Speciation, Jiaxin Deng

Masters Theses

Gall making insects form a special feeding guild of phytophagous animals, and by manipulating host plant tissue differentiation, are able to avoid plant chemical defenses and thus have no need for counter defense mechanisms. Host plant selection is crucial to the evolution of these insects because successful gall formation is largely dependent on host plant ability to respond to stimuli. In Illinois and neighboring states, Antistrophus gall wasps associated with the rosin weed (S. integrifolium) and the cup plant (S. perfoliatum) are morphologically indistinguishable and thus have been treated as belonging to single species. However, the wasps from the host …

Impacts Of Plant-Microbe Interactions On Seedling Performance In A Riparian Forest Invaded By Lonicera Maackii, Taylor E. K. Strehl

Masters Theses

Soil microbes have profound impacts on plant growth and survival and can either promote or inhibit plant dominance. Exotic plants are often strongly invasive because they have escaped their natural enemies, potentially including antagonistic soil microbes. I examined how the invasive shrub Lonicera maackii and a common native tree, Acer negundo, responded to soil microbial communities to determine the role of soil microbes in regulating invasion success. This was done by growing both species with microbes from invaded (L. maackii) and uninvaded (A. negundo) soils collected from three locations within a riparian forest. Seedlings were …

A Pipeline For Exogenous Gene Expression And Biomass Analysis In Plants, Bijay Bisunke

Masters Theses

Biological pretreatment of biomass is typically required for the production of liquid biofuels, which are viable alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. While traditional thermomechanical pretreatments are effective at helping to deconstruct lignocellulose, they are often expensive and tend to generate environmentally dangerous waste materials. An alternative to traditional pretreatment strategies is biological pretreatment, which has focused on lignocellulose-degrading organisms, such as white-rot fungi. While direct pretreatment of biomass with white-rot fungi has shown great promise, directly expressing functional white-rot fungi genes in plants (i.e. in planta expression) has the potential to be even more efficient because the biomass itself …