Life Sciences Commons^™

The Consequences Of Speed: Studies Of Cavitation During The Mantis Shrimp Strike And The Control Of Rapid Deceleration During Toad Landing, Suzanne M. Cox

Doctoral Dissertations

There are consequences of moving quickly in this world. Here we investigate how two very different species, mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) and cane toads (Bufo marinus), negotiate forces that result from moving rapidly in different environments. To study the mechanical principles and fluid dynamics of ultrafast power-amplified systems, we built Ninjabot, a physical model of the extremely fast mantis shrimp. While mantis shrimp produce damaging cavitation upon impact with their prey, they do not cavitate during the forward portion of their strike despite extreme speeds. In order to study cavitation onset in non-linear flows common during …

The Role Of Micrornas In Regulating The Translatability And Stability Of Target Messenger Rnas During The Atrophy And Programmed Cell Death Of The Intersegmental Muscles Of The Tobacco Hawkmoth Manduca Sexta., Elizabeth Chan

Masters Theses

A variety of diseases lead to the atrophy and/or death of skeletal muscle. To better understand the molecular mechanisms that mediate these processes, I have taken advantage of the intersegmental muscles (ISMs) of the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta, which undergo sequential programs of atrophy and programmed cell death at the end of metamorphosis. ISM death is mediated by changes in gene expression and numerous cell-death associated transcripts have been identified. MicroRNAs (miRs) are small (~22 nucleotide) non-coding RNAs that bind to sequences in messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and either cause translational arrest or mRNA degradation. To test the hypothesis that …

Spider Brain Morphology & Behavior, Skye M. Long

Doctoral Dissertations

Spiders are ideal model animals for experimental and comparative studies of behavior, learning and perception. They display many complex behaviors, such as the multimodal mating dances of lycosid spiders, the stealthy hunting strategies of the jumping spider Portia sp., to the labile sociality of theridiids. Spiders also demonstrate a wide range of cognitive capabilities. Spiders perceive their environment using multiple sensory modalities including: chemosensory organs; lyriform and slit-sense organs and specialized hairs that detect vibration and air movement; and up to eight eyes that vary in function, some able to detect polarization and a broad spectrum of light, including …

Chemically Mediated Interactions Between Hosts, Parasitic Plants And Insect Herbivores, Muvari C. Tjiurutue

Doctoral Dissertations

Species interactions, by changing phenotypic traits, can alter the outcome of subsequent interactions. Plant-mediated responses to herbivores have been extensively studied, but little is known about plant-mediated responses involving parasitic plants within a broader community context that also includes herbivores. Because parasitic plants are important components of many ecosystems and can shape community structure, it is important to understand how host-mediated interactions influence parasite preference and success. The goal of this thesis is to examine interactions between hosts, parasitic plants and herbivores mediated by chemical traits. We first examined the effects of dodder (Cuscuta sp.) parasitism on induced defenses …

Curcumin And Its Oxidative Degradation Products: Their Comparative Effects On Inflammation, Julia Zhu

Masters Theses

The anti-inflammatory agent curcumin degrades rapidly, leading to speculations that curcumin’s reported effects stem from its degradation products. Curcumin can degrade via hydrolysis, and more recently it was discovered that curcumin can degrade via oxidation at physiological pH. Additionally, bicyclopentadione is the major degradation product from this oxidation reaction. Evidence from the literature suggests that curcumin degrades primarily through oxidation. However, the biology of the oxidation products is not well characterized, and there is debate on whether oxidation intermediates or curcumin itself is more biologically active. To further elucidate the biology of the oxidation products, their effects on inflammation were …

Evaluating A Novel Photochemical Tool For Labeling And Tracking Live, Endogenous Calcium-Permeable Ampars, Rosamund Elizabeth Combs-Bachmann

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research is to advance development of a photochemical tool designed to probe the role of ionotropic glutamate receptor signaling in neurodegenerative processes, and to delve more deeply into the biological processes underlying the role of these receptors in signaling and memory formation. This ligand-targeted nanoprobe was designed and developed in our lab to label endogenous calcium-permeable AMPARs (CP-AMPARs) in live cells with minimal disruption to native receptor activity. Nanoprobe is designed to use naphthyl acetyl spermine (NASPM) as a photocleavable ligand to target and covalently label native CP-AMPARs with a non-perturbing, fluorescent marker that then allows …

Evolvability Of The Skull: A Study Of Genetic Basis And Integration In The Teleost Craniofacial Skeleton, Yinan Hu

Doctoral Dissertations

As the field of evolutionary biology pivots away from a gene-centric view of how adaptive evolution proceeds, renewed emphasis is placed on the origin of phenotypic variation. Understanding the developmental processes that underlie the production of novel traits, and how they might influence evolvability, is considered a primary goal in the on-going “extended evolutionary synthesis”. The following dissertation explores these questions in the context of adaptive radiations in fish, with a focus on morphological variation in the craniofacial skeleton. Specifically, the first chapter investigates the genetic and developmental basis of shape (co-)variation in the feeding apparatus of African cichlid fishes, …

Chromosome Biorientation Produces Hundreds Of Piconewtons At A Metazoan Kinetochore, Anna A. Ye, Stuart Cane, Thomas J. Maresca

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

High-fidelity transmission of the genome through cell division requires that all sister kinetochores bind to dynamic microtubules (MTs) from opposite spindle poles. The application of opposing forces to this bioriented configuration produces tension that stabilizes kinetochore–microtubule (kt–MT) attachments. Defining the magnitude of force that is applied to kinetochores is central to understanding the mechano-molecular underpinnings of chromosome segregation; however, existing kinetochore force measurements span orders of magnitude. Here we measure kinetochore forces by engineering two calibrated force sensors into the Drosophila kinetochore protein centromere protein (CENP)-C. Measurements of both reporters indicate that they are, on average, under ∼1–2 piconewtons (pNs) …

Patterns Around Us Presentation, Benny Davidovitch

Patterns Around Us

No abstract provided.

2016 Newsletter, Julian Tyson, Kevin Griffith

STEM Education Institute Newsletters

PVSTEMNet Update, Pg. 2

Arsenic Education, Pg. 3-6

UMass Biotech Initiatives, Pg. 7-8

BioTeach Program, Pg. 9

NSTA Award, Pg. 10

Cosmos Course, Pg.11

Humor and Climate, Pg. 12-13

More Cli-Sci Fiction, Pg. 14

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars, Pg. 15-16

Tuesday Talks, Pg. 17-18

Parasite Removal, But Not Herbivory, Deters Future Parasite Attachment On Tomato, Muvari Connie Tjiurutue, Evan C. Palmer-Young, Lynn S. Adler

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

Plants face many antagonistic interactions that occur sequentially. Often, plants employ defense strategies in response to the initial damage that are highly specific and can affect interactions with subsequent antagonists. In addition to herbivores and pathogens, plants face attacks by parasitic plants, but we know little about how prior herbivory compared to prior parasite attachment affects subsequent host interactions. If host plants can respond adaptively to these different damage types, we predict that prior parasitism would have a greater deterrent effect on subsequent parasites than would prior herbivory. To test the effects of prior parasitism and prior herbivory on subsequent …

Plant Distribution Data Show Broader Climatic Limits Than Expert-Based Climatic Tolerance Estimates, Caroline A. Curtis, Bethany A. Bradley

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Background

Although increasingly sophisticated environmental measures are being applied to species distributions models, the focus remains on using climatic data to provide estimates of habitat suitability. Climatic tolerance estimates based on expert knowledge are available for a wide range of plants via the USDA PLANTS database. We aim to test how climatic tolerance inferred from plant distribution records relates to tolerance estimated by experts. Further, we use this information to identify circumstances when species distributions are more likely to approximate climatic tolerance.

Methods

We compiled expert knowledge estimates of minimum and maximum precipitation and minimum temperature tolerance for over 1800 …

Spatial Capture–Recapture Models Allowing Markovian Transience Or Dispersal, J. Royle, Angela Fuller, Chris Sutherland

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models are a relatively recent development in quantitative ecology, and they are becoming widely used to model density in studies of animal populations using camera traps, DNA sampling and other methods which produce spatially explicit individual encounter information. One of the core assumptions of SCR models is that individuals possess home ranges that are spatially stationary during the sampling period. For many species, this assumption is unlikely to be met and, even for species that are typically territorial, individuals may disperse or exhibit transience at some life stages. In this paper we first conduct a simulation study …

Spatial Capture–Recapture: A Promising Method For Analyzing Data Collected Using Artificial Cover Objects, Chris Sutherland, David Mun'oz, David Miller, Evan Grant

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) is a relatively recent development in ecological statistics that provides a spatial context for estimating abundance and space use patterns, and improves inference about absolute population density. SCR has been applied to individual encounter data collected noninvasively using methods such as camera traps, hair snares, and scat surveys. Despite the widespread use of capture based surveys to monitor amphibians and reptiles, there are few applications of SCR in the herpetological literature. We demonstrate the utility of the application of SCR for studies of reptiles and amphibians by analyzing capture–recapture data from Red-Backed Salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, collected using …

Floral Scent Mimicry And Vector-Pathogen Associations In A Pseudoflower-Inducing Plant Pathogen System, Scott H. Mcart, Timothy D. Miles, Cesar Rodriguez-Saona, Annemiek Schilder, Lynn S. Adler, Matthew J. Grieshop

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

Several fungal plant pathogens induce ‘pseudoflowers’ on their hosts to facilitate insect-mediated transmission of gametes and spores. When spores must be transmitted to host flowers to complete the fungal life cycle, we predict that pseudoflowers should evolve traits that mimic flowers and attract the most effective vectors in the flower-visiting community. We quantified insect visitation to flowers, healthy leaves and leaves infected with Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi (Mvc), the causative agent of mummy berry disease of blueberry. We developed a nested PCR assay for detecting Mvc spores on bees, flies and other potential insect vectors. We also collected volatiles from …

Scientific Issues Relevant To Setting Regulatory Criteria To Identify Endocrine-Disrupting Substances In The European Union, Rémy Slama, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Barbara Demeneix, Richard Ivell, Giancarlo Panzica, Andreas Kortenkamp, R. Thomas Zoeller

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

Background: Endocrine disruptors (EDs) are defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as exogenous compounds or mixtures that alter function(s) of the endocrine system and consequently cause adverse effects in an intact organism, or its progeny, or (sub)populations. European regulations on pesticides, biocides, cosmetics, and industrial chemicals require the European Commission to establish scientific criteria to define EDs.

Objectives: We address the scientific relevance of four options for the identification of EDs proposed by the European Commission.

Discussion: Option 1, which does not define EDs and leads to using interim criteria unrelated to the WHO definition of EDs, is not …

Population Structure In The Model Grass Brachypodium Distachyon Is Highly Correlated With Flowering Differences Across Broad Geographic Areas, Ludmila Tyler, Scott J. Lee, Nelson D. Young, Gregory A. Delulio, Elena Benavente, Michael Reagon, Jessica Sysopha, Riccardo M. Baldini, Angelo Troìa, Samuel P. Hazen, Ana L. Caicedo

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

The small, annual grass Brachypodium distachyon (L.) Beauv., a close relative of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), is a powerful model system for cereals and bioenergy grasses. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of natural variation can elucidate the genetic basis of complex traits but have been so far limited in B. distachyon by the lack of large numbers of well-characterized and sufficiently diverse accessions. Here, we report on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) of 84 B. distachyon, seven B. hybridum, and three B. stacei accessions with diverse geographic origins including Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Italy, Spain, and …

Florivory Shapes Both Leaf And Floral Interactions, Nicole L. Soper Gorden, Lynn S. Adler

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

Florivory, or the consumption of flowers, is a ubiquitous interaction that can reduce plant reproduction directly by damaging reproductive tissues and indirectly by deterring pollinators. However, we know surprisingly little about how florivory alters plant traits or the larger community of species interactions. Although leaf damage is known to affect floral traits and interactions in many systems, the consequences of floral damage for leaf traits and interactions are unknown. We manipulated floral damage in Impatiens capensisand measured effects on floral attractive traits and secondary chemicals, leaf secondary chemicals, floral interactions, leaf herbivory, and plant reproduction. We also examined relationships …

Black Soldier Fly Larvae Manual, Haeree H. Park

Student Showcase

This manual is a resource for fisheries, hatcheries, and farms of all types that wish to exercise a sustainable management system utilizing black soldier fly larvae through the minimization of waste. Although black soldier fly larvae can be fed to small livestock such as chickens and rodents, this project and manual are tailored specifically to freshwater fish in hopes of closing the significant gap and inefficiencies of fish management and subsequent waste throughout the New England coastal area. There is an evident opportunity to harness black soldier fly larvae’s extraordinary bioconversion of organic matter that can lead to not only …