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Impact Of Cadmium Stress On Soil Virus Reproduction And The Persistence Of Viruses Under Abiotic Conditions, Zhibo Cheng

Doctoral Dissertations

Soil viruses are ubiquitous and greatly impact the structure and function of soil microbial communities, with their effects modulated by various environmental factors. This study investigates the inactivation of naturally occurring soil viruses in sterilized soil, as well as the effects of cadmium (Cd) exposure and carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) nutrient availability on the population dynamics of virus-host communities in agricultural soil.

Lab-scale slurry and unsaturated experiments were performed to examine virus inactivation in the absence of host bacteria in sterilized soil. In slurry experiments, virus abundance declined by over 90% after 10 days of incubation. The addition of …

Viral Community Assembly In Puerto Rican Bats, Anna Sjodin

Doctoral Dissertations

Viruses are the most abundant biological entity on Earth, yet little is known about the factors driving their abundance, frequency of occurrence, and distribution in non-human hosts. Most emerging infectious diseases of humans originate in wildlife, up to a quarter of which are caused by viruses, creating an urgent need to broaden understanding of viral systems. With its theoretical depth, ecology can provide mechanistic insights about viral diversity, with broad implications for public health and wildlife conservation. Unfortunately, few datasets exist that allow a thorough exploration of viral ecology, and the process of defining viral species can prohibit timely conclusions. …

Development Of A Low Cost Biosensing Platform For Highly Sensitive And Specific On-Site Detection Of Pathogens And Infections, Cheng Cheng

Doctoral Dissertations

A highly sensitive, specific, real time, and field-deployable surveillance tool is critical to the control of pathogens and infections, as well as ecological impact of chemicals exposure. This work investigates the development of a low cost biosensing platform that can be used for viral disease diagnosis and chemical detection. The sensing mechanism is known as AC electrokinetics (ACEK) capacitive sensing. By applying an inhomogeneous AC electric field on sensor electrodes, positive dielectrophoresis is induced to accelerate the travel of analytes. The same applied AC signal also directly measures the capture of target by the probe on sensor surface. The realized …

Biological Activities Of Influenza Virus Subpopulations: Characterization Of Infectious, Interferon-Inducing And Interferon Induction-Suppressing Particles, Christopher P. Malinoski

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the complex nature of the influenza virus quasispecies. Influenza populations exist as a mixture of mostly replication-deficient biologically-active particles. These particles are measured and quantified based upon the phenotype they manifest upon entry into the host. Three subpopulations are characterized: infectious, interferon-inducing, and interferon induction-suppressing particles.

It has been observed that only 5 out of every 100 particles of influenza are infectious. A novel biological assay was developed and, for the first time, directly demonstrated that infectious particles are the progenitors of all other virus particles. From the disparity observed to exist between the numbers of physical …