Life Sciences Commons^™

Fishes Of The Dakotas, Kathryn Schlafke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biological reference materials play a critical role in studies of species biodiversity, biology, distribution, and historic diversity. Since the publications Fishes of North Dakota (Hankinson, 1929) and Fishes of South Dakota (Bailey and Allum, 1962), no new books have attempted to update the knowledge gained from the past decades of fish surveys and incorporate georeferenced collections at the state level. The last published book with the most complete accounts of fishes from North Dakota and South Dakota is the Distribution of Fishes in North and South Dakota Basins affected by the Garrison Diversion Unit (Owen et al. 1981) which includes …

Crispr/Cas9 Whole Genome Screens Reveal Novel Regulators Of Endocytic Processes In Macrophages, Jared Wollman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Macrophages maintain tissue homeostasis by identifying and eliminating threats within their tissue microenvironment. Pattern recognition receptors allow macrophages to recognize and internalize specific ligands while macropinocytosis allows the internalization of all extracellular solutes from their environment. Without pattern recognition receptors, pathogens may grow unchecked if they cannot be detected, and without macropinocytosis, macrophages struggle to detect and move around their environment. This thesis presents the results of CRISPR/Cas9 whole-genome screens used to identify the regulators of both endocytosis (Chapter 2) and macropinocytosis (Chapter 3). In Chapter 2, we report genes regulating dextran uptake in primary murine macrophages and reveal Mrc1-mediated …

Genetic Study Of Alkane Production And Oxic Nitrogen Fixation In Anabaena Sp. Pcc 7120, Jaimie L. Gibbons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 is a filamentous, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium that uses spatial separation to perform photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation simultaneously. Under fixed nitrogen limiting conditions, Anabaena 7120 forms specialized cells, called heterocysts, to fix nitrogen. In this research, I sought to add to the knowledge surrounding the process of heterocystous nitrogen fixation in Anabaena 7120. Cyanobacteria universally produce alkanes, which have been suggested to play a role in helping the organism adapt to abiotic stress, such as diazotrophic conditions. In my first study, I sought to identify the genes required for production of the hydrocarbon heptadecane (C17H36). Through using a …

Exploring The Properties Of Chitin For Promoting Tissue Engineering And Repair, M. Jahir Raihan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Rhizospheric And Bacterial Endophytes For Use As Potential Bio-Fertilizers For Sustainable Agricultural Production, Vincent Peta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brassica carinata crop production offers an exciting alternative approach to the energy crisis when looking at novel ways to power our motor vehicles. Bacterial endophytes, while residing in host-plant tissues, offer a wide array of plant growth promotion benefits such as nitrogen fixation to impart nitrogen (N) nutrition, phosphate (P) solubilization to make soil-bound phosphate more mobile in soil for plant uptake, can suppress pathogenic microbes such as fungus and produce plant growth hormones to offset stress incurred by the plant. Previous literature has shown that there is large interest in studying endophytes from economically important crops such as wheat, …

A Natural Antimicrobial From Bacillus Subtilis As A Biosanitizer For Resilient Membrane Biofilms, Pratishtha Verma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The microbial attachment and colonization on separation membranes lead to biofilm formation. Some selective isolates within the biofilm constitutive microflora acquire resistance and emerge predominant over prolonged use of the membrane. Thus, proving the cleaning and sanitization protocols to be ineffective in adequately removing resilient biofilms. This subsequently leads to selecting microbial resistance within the constitutive microflora to almost all antimicrobial treatments and hence, creates a need to develop novel alternative strategies to control biofilm formation on membrane surfaces. The first research project under this study was designed to understand the microbial interactions and emergence of predominance within biofilm constitutive …

Interaction Of Streptomyces Closely Associated With Bacillus In Nitrogen-Limiting Conditions, Aminya Baniya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biological Nitrogen Fixation is the process of conversion of atmospheric dinitrogen into ammonia which is performed by symbiotic as well as free-living diazotrophic bacteria. A previous project to isolate free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria from a natural prairie yielded Streptomyces which grew on nitrogen free medium. Genome sequencing of three isolates revealed the presence of a second 16S rRNA gene sequence aligning with Bacillus, however repeated streaking only yielded Streptomyces colonies. The aim of this research was to characterize the interaction of three Streptomyces isolates that grow under nitrogen-free conditions, and appeared to be associated with Bacillus. The separation of Bacillus …

Development Of Methods To Improve Lactose Recovery From Permeate And Drying Characteristics Of Greek Acid Whey, Venkateswarlu Sunkesula

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Growth of higher protein dairy products and ingredients such as cheese, Greek yogurt, whey protein concentrates, and milk protein concentrates is limited by the amount of co-product generated and the ability to process them into value added ingredients. Finding value for all the co-products will help dairy industry to meet the growing demand for dairy protein products and ingredients. Commercial scale evaluation of new technologies for improving lactose crystallization and drying ability of Greek yogurt acid whey will help dairy industry to better utilize different dairy co-products. Commercially, lactose is manufactured from concentrated permeate by cooling and separating α-lactose monohydrate …

Analysis Of Two Maize Mutations That Arose After Exposure To Radiation From A Plutonium-Beryllium Source And Developing Molecular Markers For Antimorph Aei1-5180, An Alternative To Aei To Increase Amylose Content In Maize Endosperm, Prameela Awale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of two independent projects dealing with two different aspects of maize. The first project is about the maize reproduction, where we try to uncover the candidate genes of two mutations that affect pollen viability and successful fertilization. The second project is about maize endosperm starch, where we developed molecular markers to characterize a mutant allele that knocks a major starch branching enzyme in maize.

Analysis of two maize mutations that arose after exposure to radiation from a plutonium-beryllium source
Maize is a monoecious and diclinous plant. Sexual reproduction takes place by the fusion of haploid male and …

Investigating Links Between Soil Microbial Structure And Function In Three Major Plant Communities Across Temporal Scales Of Arctic Alaska, Kaj Lynoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arctic microbial systems continue to get attention today as our understanding regarding their structure and function in a changing system is paramount to C feedbacks with warming and changes in precipitation. Plant communities and microbial community processes across the Arctic landscape are central to understanding tundra ecosystem processes because environmental conditions and plant community structure drive microbial cycling of soil organic matter. Here, we want to understand how soil microbial respiration, mineralization, biomass, and community composition are linked to three Alaskan tundra plant communities, namely Shrub, Tussock, and Sedge tundra and the seasonal variability in this system. A total of …