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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
My Summer Working With Two-Spotted Spider Mites, Renée A. Smith
My Summer Working With Two-Spotted Spider Mites, Renée A. Smith
Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference
Two-spotted spider mites are a polyphagous pest, capable of eating a magnitude of food crops which causes a large problem for Canadian agriculture. Their ability to consume various crops stems from their ability to adapt to various chemical defence mechanisms. This ability allows them to acquire resistance to many commonly used pesticides. This has resulted in large infections in Canadian farms with few options to prevent the pests from affecting crop yields. Take a look at my project if you'd like to see how the Grbic lab is working to combat this issue using genetic engineering techniques!
Investigating Mycelial-Crop Residue Mat Application To Reduce Early-Colonizing Weeds In Row-Crop Agriculture, Donald T. Watson
Investigating Mycelial-Crop Residue Mat Application To Reduce Early-Colonizing Weeds In Row-Crop Agriculture, Donald T. Watson
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Herbicide use within conventional agriculture has contributed to greatly increased crop yields since its widespread adoption, but environmental concerns regarding overuse and reliance on selective herbicides continue to mount. Using five fungal species and two crop residues in a factorial design, I created a novel slurry to control weeds through inhibition by the mycelial mat formed after application to soil. I monitored weed stem counts and the strength of the mycelial mat under the treatments. Additionally, as a proxy for crop yield, I measured the wet and dry mass of crop plant grown under application treatments. Weed prevalence was significantly …
Rnai Targeting Of Manduca Sexta Using Chloroplast-Encoded Long Dsrna, William Burke
Rnai Targeting Of Manduca Sexta Using Chloroplast-Encoded Long Dsrna, William Burke
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Pest management strategies are crucial for reducing insect crop damage, and methods with species-specific effect are particularly desirable. Expressing dsRNA with sequence complementarity to a vital gene of feeding pests is a strategy that has shown potential. I modified the chloroplast genome of cultivated tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, by adding a sequence encoding a 2222 base pair dsRNA complementary to the vacuolar-type H+-ATPase subunit A mRNA of Manduca sexta and demonstrated expression of the product in leaves of the plants. Although feeding this same dsRNA that was synthesized in vitro to larvae knocked down expression of the target …
Investigating The Suitability Of The Crayfish Metabolome As A Bioindicator Of Stream Conditions, Natalie M. Izral
Investigating The Suitability Of The Crayfish Metabolome As A Bioindicator Of Stream Conditions, Natalie M. Izral
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The suitability of the crayfish metabolome as a bioindicator of stream conditions was investigated because there is a need for fast responding, sensitive, diagnostic, and ecologically relevant bioindicators. A laboratory study assessed Procambarus clarkii metabolome sensitivity to six different treatments of food or DO stress. A field study in subcatchments of the Red River Valley, Manitoba, Canada assessed the effects of land-use type (reference, agriculture, wastewater effluent) on the Orconectes virilis metabolome. Crayfish were sacrificed, and hepatopancreas, gill, and tail tissues were dissected. Analyses found the metabolome was sensitive enough to potentially diagnose food and DO stress in P. clarkii …