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University of Nebraska - Lincoln

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

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2018

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Repeats Of Unusual Size In Plant Mitochondrial Genomes: Identification, Incidence And Evolution, Emily L. Wynn, Alan C. Christensen Dec 2018

Repeats Of Unusual Size In Plant Mitochondrial Genomes: Identification, Incidence And Evolution, Emily L. Wynn, Alan C. Christensen

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Plant mitochondrial genomes have excessive size relative to coding capacity, a low mutation rate in genes and a high rearrangement rate. They also have abundant non-tandem repeats often including pairs of large repeats which cause isomerization of the genome by recombination, and numerous repeats of up to several hundred base pairs that recombine only when the genome is stressed by DNA damaging agents or mutations in DNA repair pathway genes. Early work on mitochondrial genomes led to the suggestion that repeats in the size range from several hundred to a few thousand base pair are underrepresented. The repeats themselves are …


Gene Flow Mediates The Role Of Sex Chromosome Meiotic Drive During Complex Speciation, Colin D. Meiklejohn, Emily L. Landeen, Kathleen E. Gordon, Thomas Rzatkiewicz, Sarah B. Kingan, Anthony J. Geneva, Jeffrey P. Vedanayagam, Christina A. Muirhead, Daniel Garrigan, Daven C. Presgraves, David L. Stern Dec 2018

Gene Flow Mediates The Role Of Sex Chromosome Meiotic Drive During Complex Speciation, Colin D. Meiklejohn, Emily L. Landeen, Kathleen E. Gordon, Thomas Rzatkiewicz, Sarah B. Kingan, Anthony J. Geneva, Jeffrey P. Vedanayagam, Christina A. Muirhead, Daniel Garrigan, Daven C. Presgraves, David L. Stern

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

During speciation, sex chromosomes often accumulate interspecific genetic incompatibilities faster than the rest of the genome. The drive theory posits that sex chromosomes are susceptible to recurrent bouts of meiotic drive and suppression, causing the evolutionary build- up of divergent cryptic sex-linked drive systems and, incidentally, genetic incompatibilities. To assess the role of drive during speciation, we combine high-resolution genetic mapping of X-linked hybrid male sterility with population genomics analyses of divergence and recent gene flow between the fruitfly species, Drosophila mauritiana and D. simulans. Our findings reveal a high density of genetic incompatibilities and a corresponding dearth of gene …


Molecular Machinery Of Auxin Synthesis,Secretion, And Perception In The Unicellular Chlorophyte Alga Chlorella Sorokiniana Utex 1230, Maya Khasin, Rebecca E. Cahoon, Kenneth Nickerson, Wayne R. Riekhof Dec 2018

Molecular Machinery Of Auxin Synthesis,Secretion, And Perception In The Unicellular Chlorophyte Alga Chlorella Sorokiniana Utex 1230, Maya Khasin, Rebecca E. Cahoon, Kenneth Nickerson, Wayne R. Riekhof

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Indole-3-acetic acid is a ubiquitous small molecule found in all domains of life. It is the predominant and most active auxin in seed plants, where it coordinates a variety of complex growth and development processes. The potential origin of auxin signaling in algae remains a matter of some controversy. In order to clarify the evolutionary context of algal auxin signaling, we undertook a genomic survey to assess whether auxin acts as a signaling molecule in the emerging model chlorophyte Chlorella sorokiniana UTEX 1230. C. sorokiniana produces the auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which was present in both the cell pellet and …


Modeling Effects Of Ecological Factors On Evolution Of Polygenic Pesticide Resistance, C. V. Haridas, Brigitte Tenhumberg Nov 2018

Modeling Effects Of Ecological Factors On Evolution Of Polygenic Pesticide Resistance, C. V. Haridas, Brigitte Tenhumberg

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Widespread use of pesticides has resulted in the evolution of resistance in many insect pests worldwide, limiting their use in pest control. Effective pest and resistance management practices require understanding of the genetics of resistance and the life history of the pest. Most models for pesticide resistance assume that resistance is monogenic, conferred by a single gene. However, resistance could evolve as a polygenic quantitative trait resulting from the action of several genes, especially when pesticide dose is low. Further, fitness of the pest could be density dependent and might depend upon abiotic factors such as temperature. It is not …


Fueling Defense: Effects Of Resources On The Ecology And Evolution Of Tolerance To Parasite Infection, Sarah A. Budischak, Clayton E. Cressler Oct 2018

Fueling Defense: Effects Of Resources On The Ecology And Evolution Of Tolerance To Parasite Infection, Sarah A. Budischak, Clayton E. Cressler

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Resource availability is a key environmental constraint affecting the ecology and evolution of species. Resources have strong effects on disease resistance, but they can also affect the othermain parasite defense strategy, tolerance. A small but growing number of animal studies are beginning to investigate the effects of resources on tolerance phenotypes. Here, we review how resources affect tolerance strategies across animal taxa ranging from fruit flies to frogs to mice. Surprisingly, resources (quality and quantity) can increase or reduce tolerance, dependent upon the particular host-parasite system. To explore this seeming contradiction, we recast predictions of models of sterility tolerance and …


Males And Females Evolve Riskier Traits In Populations With Eavesdropping Parasitoids, Oliver M. Beckers, William E. Wagner Oct 2018

Males And Females Evolve Riskier Traits In Populations With Eavesdropping Parasitoids, Oliver M. Beckers, William E. Wagner

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Predation and/or parasitism often limits the evolution of conspicuous male traits and female preferences because conspicuous traits can attract predators or parasites and it is costly for females to associate with males that attract predators or parasites. As a result, males and females in high-risk populations are expected to evolve safer mating behaviors compared to individuals from low-risk populations. We tested this antagonistic selection hypothesis in the field cricket Gryllus lineaticeps. Males produce chirped songs, and both female crickets and the eavesdropping parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea prefer faster chirp rates. The flies attack the field crickets late in the …


Transcriptomic, Functional, And Network Analyses Reveal Novel Genes Involved In The Interaction Between Caenorhabditis Elegans And Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, Corin V. White, Michael A. Herman Aug 2018

Transcriptomic, Functional, And Network Analyses Reveal Novel Genes Involved In The Interaction Between Caenorhabditis Elegans And Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, Corin V. White, Michael A. Herman

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The bacterivorous nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model for the study of innate immune responses to a variety of bacterial pathogens, including the emerging nosocomial bacterial pathogen Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. The study of this interaction has ecological and medical relevance as S. maltophilia is found in association with C. elegans and other nematodes in the wild and is an emerging opportunistic bacterial pathogen. We identified 393 genes that were differentially expressed when exposed to virulent and avirulent strains of S.maltophilia and an avirulent strain of E. coli. We then used a probabilistic functional gene network model (WormNet) to determine …


Dehydration Stress Memory: Gene Networks Linked To Physiological Responses During Repeated Stresses Of Zea Mays, Laetitia Virlouvet, Thomas J. Avenson, Qian Du, Chi Zhang, Ning Liu, Michael Fromm, Zoya Avramova, Sabrina E. Russo Jul 2018

Dehydration Stress Memory: Gene Networks Linked To Physiological Responses During Repeated Stresses Of Zea Mays, Laetitia Virlouvet, Thomas J. Avenson, Qian Du, Chi Zhang, Ning Liu, Michael Fromm, Zoya Avramova, Sabrina E. Russo

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Stress memory refers to the observation that an initial, sub-lethal stress alters plants’ responses to subsequent stresses. Previous transcriptome analyses of maize seedlings exposed to a repeated dehydration stress has revealed the existence of transcriptional stress memory in Zea mays. Whether drought-related physiological responses also display memory and how transcriptional memory translates into physiological memory are fundamental questions that are still unanswered. Using a systems-biology approach we investigate whether/how transcription memory responses established in the genome-wide analysis of Z. mays correlate with 14 physiological parameters measured during a repeated exposure of maize seedlings to dehydration stress. Co-expression network analysis revealed …


Cross-Ecosystem Effects Of Terrestrial Predators Link Treefrogs, Zooplankton, And Aquatic Primary Production, Jessica L. Hite, Myra C. Hughey, Karen M. Warkentin, James R. Vonesh Jul 2018

Cross-Ecosystem Effects Of Terrestrial Predators Link Treefrogs, Zooplankton, And Aquatic Primary Production, Jessica L. Hite, Myra C. Hughey, Karen M. Warkentin, James R. Vonesh

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Predators can directly or indirectly shape food webs through a combination of consumptive and non-consumptive effects. Yet, how these effects vary across natural populations and their consequences for adjacent ecosystems remains poorly resolved. We examined links between terrestrial predators and aquatic ecosystems through their effects on a locally abundant amphibian, the red-eyed treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas), which has arboreal eggs (heavily predated by snakes and wasps) and aquatic larvae; embryos can escape terrestrial threats by hatching at an earlier age and smaller size. Our multi-site field survey indicates that in natural populations, the relative contributions of these consumptive and non-consumptive effects …


A Probable Case Of Incipient Speciation In Schizocosa Wolf Spiders Driven By Allochrony, Habitat Use, And Female Mate Choice, R. Tucker Gilman, Kasey Fowler-Finn, Eileen A. Hebets Jun 2018

A Probable Case Of Incipient Speciation In Schizocosa Wolf Spiders Driven By Allochrony, Habitat Use, And Female Mate Choice, R. Tucker Gilman, Kasey Fowler-Finn, Eileen A. Hebets

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

There is growing evidence that speciation can occur between populations that are not geographically isolated. The emergence of assortative mating is believed to be critical to this process, but how assortative mating arises in diverging populations is poorly understood. The wolf spider genus Schizocosa has become a model system for studying mechanisms of assortative mating. We conducted a series of experiments to identify the factors that control mate-pair formation in a Schizocosa population that includes both ornamented and nonornamented males. We show that the population also includes two previously unrecognized female phenotypes. One female phenotype mates mostly or exclusively with …


Predators Modify The Temperature Dependence Of Life-History Trade-Offs, Thomas M. Luhring, Janna M. Vavra, Clayton E. Cressler, John Delong Jun 2018

Predators Modify The Temperature Dependence Of Life-History Trade-Offs, Thomas M. Luhring, Janna M. Vavra, Clayton E. Cressler, John Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Although life histories are shaped by temperature and predation, their joint influence on the interdependence of life-history traits is poorly understood. Shifts in one life-history trait often necessitate shifts in another—structured in some cases by trade-offs— leading to differing life-history strategies among environments. The offspring size–number trade-off connects three traits whereby a constant reproductive allocation (R) constrains how the number (O) and size (S) of offspring change. Increasing temperature and size-independent predation decrease size at and time to reproduction which can lower R through reduced time for resource accrual or size-constrained fecundity. We investigated how O, S, and R in …


Multiple–True–False Questions Reveal The Limits Of The Multiple–Choice Format For Detecting Students With Incomplete Understandings, Brian Couch, Joanna K. Hubbard, Chad Brassil Jun 2018

Multiple–True–False Questions Reveal The Limits Of The Multiple–Choice Format For Detecting Students With Incomplete Understandings, Brian Couch, Joanna K. Hubbard, Chad Brassil

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

By having students select one answer among several plausible options, multiple–choice (MC) questions capture a student’s preferred answer but provide little information regarding a student’s thinking on the remaining options. We conducted a crossover design experiment in which similar groups of introductory biology students were assigned verbatim questions in the MC format or multiple–true–false (MTF) format, which requires students to separately evaluate each option as either true or false. Our data reveal that nearly half of the students who select the correct MC answer likely hold incorrect understandings of the other options and that the selection rates for individual MC …


Parasite Rearing And Infection Temperatures Jointly Influence Disease Transmission And Shape Seasonality Of Epidemics, Marta S. Shocket, Daniela Vergara, Andrew J. Sickbert, Jason M. Walsman, Alexander T. Strauss, Jessica L. Hite, Meghan A. Duffy, Carla E. Caceres, Spencer R. Hall May 2018

Parasite Rearing And Infection Temperatures Jointly Influence Disease Transmission And Shape Seasonality Of Epidemics, Marta S. Shocket, Daniela Vergara, Andrew J. Sickbert, Jason M. Walsman, Alexander T. Strauss, Jessica L. Hite, Meghan A. Duffy, Carla E. Caceres, Spencer R. Hall

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Seasonal epidemics erupt commonly in nature and are driven by numerous mechanisms. Here, we suggest a new mechanism that could determine the size and timing of seasonal epidemics: rearing environment changes the performance of parasites. This mechanism arises when the environmental conditions in which a parasite is produced impact its performance—independently from the current environment. To illustrate the potential for “rearing effects”, we show how temperature influences infection risk (transmission rate) in a Daphnia-fungus disease system through both parasite rearing temperature and infection temperature. During autumnal epidemics, zooplankton hosts contact (eat) fungal parasites (spores) reared in a gradually cooling environment. …


Song Recognition And Heterospecific Associations Between 2 Fairy-Wren Species (Maluridae), Allison E. Johnson, Christina Masco, Stephen Pruett-Jones May 2018

Song Recognition And Heterospecific Associations Between 2 Fairy-Wren Species (Maluridae), Allison E. Johnson, Christina Masco, Stephen Pruett-Jones

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Although heterospecific associations beneficial to one or both species involved (e.g. commensalisms or mutualisms) are common, it is generally assumed that interactions between species are transient and not particular to individuals. However, long-term interactions between individuals of different species do occur. In such heterospecific social groups, discrimination between heterospecific individuals may be beneficial, allowing individuals to direct beneficial or aggressive behaviors towards appropriate targets. Here, we describe heterospecific groups composed of splendid and variegated fairy-wrens (Malurus splendens and M. lamberti) and provide the first experimental evidence that recognition of heterospecific group members occurs across species. In these species, …


Body Size Downgrading Of Mammals Over The Late Quaternary, Felisa A. Smith, Rosemary E. Elliott Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jonathan L. Payne Apr 2018

Body Size Downgrading Of Mammals Over The Late Quaternary, Felisa A. Smith, Rosemary E. Elliott Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jonathan L. Payne

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Since the late Pleistocene, large-bodied mammals have been extirpated from much of Earth. Although all habitable continents once harbored giant mammals, the few remaining species are largely confined to Africa. This decline is coincident with the global expansion of hominins over the late Quaternary. Here, we quantify mammalian extinction selectivity, continental body size distributions, and taxonomic diversity over five time periods spanning the past 125,000 years and stretching approximately 200 years into the future. We demonstrate that size-selective extinction was already under way in the oldest interval and occurred on all continents, within all trophic modes, and across all time …


Energetic Tradeoffs Control The Size Distribution Of Aquatic Mammals, William Gearty, Craig R. Mcclain, Jonathan Payne Apr 2018

Energetic Tradeoffs Control The Size Distribution Of Aquatic Mammals, William Gearty, Craig R. Mcclain, Jonathan Payne

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Four extant lineages of mammals have invaded and diversified in the water: Sirenia, Cetacea, Pinnipedia, and Lutrinae. Most of these aquatic clades are larger bodied, on average, than their closest land-dwelling relatives, but the extent to which potential ecological, biomechanical, and physiological controls contributed to this pattern remains untested quantitatively. Here, we use previously published data on the body masses of 3,859 living and 2,999 fossil mammal species to examine the evolutionary trajectories of body size in aquatic mammals through both comparative phylogenetic analysis and examination of the fossil record. Both methods indicate that the evolution of an aquatic lifestyle …


Temperature Drives Epidemics In A Zooplankton-Fungus Disease System: A Trait-Driven Approach Points To Transmission Via Host Foraging, Marta S. Shocket, Alexander T. Strauss, Jessica L. Hite, Maja Šljivar, David J. Civitello, Meghan A. Duffy, Carla E. Cáceres, Spencer R. Hall Feb 2018

Temperature Drives Epidemics In A Zooplankton-Fungus Disease System: A Trait-Driven Approach Points To Transmission Via Host Foraging, Marta S. Shocket, Alexander T. Strauss, Jessica L. Hite, Maja Šljivar, David J. Civitello, Meghan A. Duffy, Carla E. Cáceres, Spencer R. Hall

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Climatic warming will likely have idiosyncratic impacts on infectious diseases, causing some to increase while others decrease or shift geographically. A mechanistic framework could better predict these different temperature-disease outcomes. However, such a framework remains challenging to develop, due to the nonlinear and (sometimes) opposing thermal responses of different host and parasite traits and due to the difficulty of validating model predictions with observations and experiments. We address these challenges in a zooplanktonfungus (Daphnia dentifera–Metschnikowia bicuspidata) system. We test the hypothesis that warmer temperatures promote disease spread and produce larger epidemics. In lakes, epidemics that start earlier and warmer in …


Effects Of Elevated Co2, Increased Nitrogen Deposition, And Plant Diversity On Aboveground Litter And Root Decomposition, Xiaoan Zuo, Johannes Knops Feb 2018

Effects Of Elevated Co2, Increased Nitrogen Deposition, And Plant Diversity On Aboveground Litter And Root Decomposition, Xiaoan Zuo, Johannes Knops

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Global change-induced litter decomposition strongly affects the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics in grassland ecosystems. However, few studies show the interactive effects of global change factors on litter and root decomposition. We conducted a four-year grassland field experiment to examine the quality and decomposition of litter and root in a three-factorial experiment with elevated CO2, increased N deposition, and plant species richness. We found that elevated CO2 decreased the litter N content and root lignin content. N addition increased the root N content and decreased the litter lignin content. Increasing plant richness decreased the N and …


Feeding Immunity: Physiological And Behavioral Responses To Infection And Resource Limitation, Sarah A. Budischak, Christina B. Hansen, Quentin Caudron, Romain Garnier, Tyler R. Kartzinel, István Pelczer, Clayton E. Cressler, Anieke Van Leeuwen, Andrea L. Graham Jan 2018

Feeding Immunity: Physiological And Behavioral Responses To Infection And Resource Limitation, Sarah A. Budischak, Christina B. Hansen, Quentin Caudron, Romain Garnier, Tyler R. Kartzinel, István Pelczer, Clayton E. Cressler, Anieke Van Leeuwen, Andrea L. Graham

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Resources are a core currency of species interactions and ecology in general (e.g., think of food webs or competition). Within parasite-infected hosts, resources are divided among the competing demands of host immunity and growth as well as parasite reproduction and growth. Effects of resources on immune responses are increasingly understood at the cellular level (e.g., metabolic predictors of effector function), but there has been limited consideration of how these effects scale up to affect individual energetic regimes (e.g., allocation trade-offs), susceptibility to infection, and feeding behavior (e.g., responses to local resource quality and quantity). We experimentally rewilded laboratory mice (strain …


The Development And Application Of Bioinformatics Core Competencies To Improve Bioinformatics Training And Education, Nicola Mulder, Russell Schwartz, Michelle D. Brazas, Cath Brooksbank, Bruno Gaeta, Sarah L. Morgan, Mark A. Pauley, Anne Rosenwald, Gabriella Rustici, Michael Sierk, Tandy Warnow, Lonnie Welch Jan 2018

The Development And Application Of Bioinformatics Core Competencies To Improve Bioinformatics Training And Education, Nicola Mulder, Russell Schwartz, Michelle D. Brazas, Cath Brooksbank, Bruno Gaeta, Sarah L. Morgan, Mark A. Pauley, Anne Rosenwald, Gabriella Rustici, Michael Sierk, Tandy Warnow, Lonnie Welch

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Bioinformatics is recognized as part of the essential knowledge base of numerous career paths in biomedical research and healthcare. However, there is little agreement in the field over what that knowledge entails or how best to provide it. These disagreements are compounded by the wide range of populations in need of bioinformatics training, with divergent prior backgrounds and intended application areas. The Curriculum Task Force of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB) Education Committee has sought to provide a framework for training needs and curricula in terms of a set of bioinformatics core competencies that cut across many user …


Molecular Basis Of Hemoglobin Adaptation In The High-Flying Bar-Headed Goose, Chandrasekhar Natarajan, Agnieszka Jendroszek, Amit Kumar, Roy E. Weber, Jeremy R. H. Tame, Angela Fago, Jay F. Storz Jan 2018

Molecular Basis Of Hemoglobin Adaptation In The High-Flying Bar-Headed Goose, Chandrasekhar Natarajan, Agnieszka Jendroszek, Amit Kumar, Roy E. Weber, Jeremy R. H. Tame, Angela Fago, Jay F. Storz

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

During the adaptive evolution of a particular trait, some selectively fixed mutations may be directly causative and others may be purely compensatory. The relative contribution of these two classes of mutation to adaptive phenotypic evolution depends on the form and prevalence of mutational pleiotropy. To investigate the nature of adaptive substitutions and their pleiotropic effects, we used a protein engineering approach to characterize the molecular basis of hemoglobin (Hb) adaptation in the high-flying bar-headed goose (Anser indicus), a hypoxia-tolerant species renowned for its trans-Himalayan migratory flights. To test the effects of observed substitutions on evolutionarily relevant genetic backgrounds, …


Student, Instructor, And Observer Agreement Regarding Frequencies Of Scientific Teaching Practices Using The Measurement Instrument For Scientific Teaching-Observable (Misto), Mary F. Durham, Jennifer Knight, Emily K. Bremers, Jameson D. Defreece, Alex R. Paine, Brian A. Couch Jan 2018

Student, Instructor, And Observer Agreement Regarding Frequencies Of Scientific Teaching Practices Using The Measurement Instrument For Scientific Teaching-Observable (Misto), Mary F. Durham, Jennifer Knight, Emily K. Bremers, Jameson D. Defreece, Alex R. Paine, Brian A. Couch

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: The Scientific Teaching (ST) pedagogical framework encompasses many of the best practices recommended in the literature and highlighted in national reports. Understanding the growth and impact of ST requires instruments to accurately measure the extent to which practitioners implement ST in their courses. Researchers have typically relied on students, instructors, or observers to document course teaching practices, but it remains unclear whether and how these perspectives differ from each other. To address this issue, we modified our previously published instrument to generate the Measurement Instrument for Scientific Teaching-Observable (MISTO), which can be completed by students, instructors, and observers, and …


Rnai Doxxes Segregation Distorters On The X, Justin P. Blumenstiel, Colin D. Meiklejohn Jan 2018

Rnai Doxxes Segregation Distorters On The X, Justin P. Blumenstiel, Colin D. Meiklejohn

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Species with chromosomal sex determination are susceptible to an evolutionary tug-of-war over sex chromosome segregation. RNA silencing has been proposed to play a role in this intragenomic conflict. Reporting in Developmental Cell, Lin et al. (2018) demonstrate that RNA interference is key to this conflict as a genome defender. ... This work from Lin et al. (2018) provides exciting new evidence that RNA silencing may play a special role as a genome defense against native genes gone rogue. It will be interesting to see how these evolutionary games mediated by RNA silencing influence germline evolution and the dynamics of speciation.


Time-Lagged Effects Of Weather On Plant Demography: Drought And Astragalus Scaphoides, Brigitte Tenhumberg, Elizabeth E. Crone, Satu Ramula, Andrew J. Tyre Jan 2018

Time-Lagged Effects Of Weather On Plant Demography: Drought And Astragalus Scaphoides, Brigitte Tenhumberg, Elizabeth E. Crone, Satu Ramula, Andrew J. Tyre

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Temperature and precipitation determine the conditions where plant species can occur. Despite their significance, to date, surprisingly few demographic field studies have considered the effects of abiotic drivers. This is problematic because anticipating the effect of global climate change on plant population viability requires understanding how weather variables affect population dynamics. One possible reason for omitting the effect of weather variables in demographic studies is the difficulty in detecting tight associations between vital rates and environmental drivers. In this paper, we applied Functional Linear Models (FLMs) to long-term demographic data of the perennial wildflower, Astragalus scaphoides, and explored sensitivity of …


Cd32 Is Expressed On Cells With Transcriptionally Active Hiv But Does Not Enrich For Hiv Dna In Resting T Cells, Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Leticia Kuri-Cervantes, Judith Grau-Exposito, Adam M. Spivak, Racheal A. Nell, Costin Tomescu, Surya Kumari Vadrevu, Leila B. Giron, Carla Serra-Peinado, Meritxell Genesca, Josep Castellvi, Guoxin Wu, Perla M. Del Rio Estrada, Mauricio Gonzalez-Navarro, Kenneth Lynn, Collin T. King, Sai Vemula, Kara Cox, Yanmin Wan, Qingsheng Li, Karam Mounzer, Jay Kostman, Ian Frank, Mirko Paiardini, Daria Hazuda, Gustavo Reyes-Teran, Douglas Richman, Bonnie Howell, Pablo Tebas, Javier Martinez-Picado, Vicente Planelles, Maria J. Buzon, Michael R. Betts, Luis J. Montaner Jan 2018

Cd32 Is Expressed On Cells With Transcriptionally Active Hiv But Does Not Enrich For Hiv Dna In Resting T Cells, Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Leticia Kuri-Cervantes, Judith Grau-Exposito, Adam M. Spivak, Racheal A. Nell, Costin Tomescu, Surya Kumari Vadrevu, Leila B. Giron, Carla Serra-Peinado, Meritxell Genesca, Josep Castellvi, Guoxin Wu, Perla M. Del Rio Estrada, Mauricio Gonzalez-Navarro, Kenneth Lynn, Collin T. King, Sai Vemula, Kara Cox, Yanmin Wan, Qingsheng Li, Karam Mounzer, Jay Kostman, Ian Frank, Mirko Paiardini, Daria Hazuda, Gustavo Reyes-Teran, Douglas Richman, Bonnie Howell, Pablo Tebas, Javier Martinez-Picado, Vicente Planelles, Maria J. Buzon, Michael R. Betts, Luis J. Montaner

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The persistence of HIV reservoirs, including latently infected, resting CD4+ T cells, is the major obstacle to cure HIV infection. CD32a expression was recently reported to mark CD4+ T cells harboring a replication-competent HIV reservoir during antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppression. We aimed to determine whether CD32 expression marks HIV latently or transcriptionally active infected CD4+ T cells. Using peripheral blood and lymphoid tissue of ART-treated HIV+ or SIV+ subjects, we found that most of the circulating memory CD32+ CD4+ T cells expressed markers of activation, including CD69, HLA-DR, CD25, CD38, and Ki67, and …


Ecoevo-Maps: An Ecology And Evolution Assessment For Introductory Through Advanced Undergraduates, Mindi M. Summers, Brian A. Couch, Jennifer K. Knight, Sara E. Brownell, Alison J. Crowe, Katharine Semsar, Christian D. Wright, Michelle K. Smith Jan 2018

Ecoevo-Maps: An Ecology And Evolution Assessment For Introductory Through Advanced Undergraduates, Mindi M. Summers, Brian A. Couch, Jennifer K. Knight, Sara E. Brownell, Alison J. Crowe, Katharine Semsar, Christian D. Wright, Michelle K. Smith

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

A new assessment tool, Ecology and Evolution–Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science or EcoEvo-MAPS, measures student thinking in ecology and evolution during an undergraduate course of study. EcoEvo-MAPS targets foundational concepts in ecology and evolution and uses a novel approach that asks students to evaluate a series of predictions, conclusions, or interpretations as likely or unlikely to be true given a specific scenario. We collected evidence of validity and reliability for EcoEvo-MAPS through an iterative process of faculty review, student interviews, and analyses of assessment data from more than 3000 students at 34 associate’s-, bachelor’s-, master’s-, and doctoral-granting institutions. The …


Change In Dominance Determines Herbivore Effects On Plant Biodiversity, Sally E. Koerner, Johannes Knops, Dustin J. Strong, 80 More Co-Authors Jan 2018

Change In Dominance Determines Herbivore Effects On Plant Biodiversity, Sally E. Koerner, Johannes Knops, Dustin J. Strong, 80 More Co-Authors

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Herbivores alter plant biodiversity (species richness) in many of the world's ecosystems, but the magnitude and the direction of herbivore effects on biodiversity vary widely within and among ecosystems. One current theory predicts that herbivores enhance plant biodiversity at high productivity but have the opposite effect at low productivity. Yet, empirical support for the importance of site productivity as a mediator of these herbivore impacts is equivocal. Here, we synthesize data from 252 large-herbivore exclusion studies, spanning a 20-fold range in site productivity, to test an alternative hypothesis—that herbivore-induced changes in the competitive environment determine the response of plant biodiversity …


Influenza D Virus M2 Protein Exhibits Ion Channel Activity In Xenopus Laevis Oocytes, Evan Kesinger, Jianing Liu, Aaron Jensen, Catherine P. Chia, Andrew Demers, Hideaki Moriyama Jan 2018

Influenza D Virus M2 Protein Exhibits Ion Channel Activity In Xenopus Laevis Oocytes, Evan Kesinger, Jianing Liu, Aaron Jensen, Catherine P. Chia, Andrew Demers, Hideaki Moriyama

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

A new type of influenza virus, known as type D, has recently been identified in cattle and pigs. Influenza D virus infection in cattle is typically asymptomatic; however, its infection in swine can result in clinical disease. Swine can also be infected with all other types of influenza viruses, namely A, B, and C. Consequently, swine can serve as a "mixing vessel" for highly pathogenic influenza viruses, including those with zoonotic potential. Currently, the only antiviral drug available targets influenza M2 protein ion channel is not completely effective. Thus, it is necessary to develop an M2 ion channel blocker capable …


Evolutionary Origins Of Vocal Mimicry In Songbirds, Maria Goller, Daizaburo Shizuka Jan 2018

Evolutionary Origins Of Vocal Mimicry In Songbirds, Maria Goller, Daizaburo Shizuka

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Vocal learning is an important behavior in oscines (songbirds). Some songbird species learn heterospecific sounds as well as conspecific vocalizations. The emergence of vocal mimicry is necessarily tied to the evolution of vocal learning, as mimicry requires the ability to acquire sounds through learning. As such, tracking the evolutionary origins of vocal mimicry may provide insights into the causes of variation in song learning programs among songbirds. We compiled a database of known vocal mimics that comprised 339 species from 43 families. We then traced the evolutionary history of vocal mimicry across the avian phylogeny using ancestral trait reconstruction on …


Rna-Seq Of Kaposi's Sarcoma Reveals Alterations In Glucose And Lipid Metabolism, For Yue Tso, Andrew V. Kossenkov, Salum J. Lidenge, Owen Ngalamika, John R. Ngowi, Julius Mwaiselage, Jayamanna Wickramasinghe, Eun Hee Kwon, John T. West, Paul M. Lieberman, Charles Wood Jan 2018

Rna-Seq Of Kaposi's Sarcoma Reveals Alterations In Glucose And Lipid Metabolism, For Yue Tso, Andrew V. Kossenkov, Salum J. Lidenge, Owen Ngalamika, John R. Ngowi, Julius Mwaiselage, Jayamanna Wickramasinghe, Eun Hee Kwon, John T. West, Paul M. Lieberman, Charles Wood

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). It is endemic in a number of sub-Saharan African countries with infection rate of >50%. The high prevalence of HIV-1 coupled with late presentation of advanced cancer staging make KS the leading cancer in the region with poor prognosis and high mortality. Disease markers and cellular functions associated with KS tumorigenesis remain ill-defined. Several studies have attempted to investigate changes of the gene profile with in vitro infection of monoculture models, which are not likely to reflect the cellular complexity of the in vivo lesion environment. Our approach …