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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Population Demographics And Genetic Structure Of Black Bears In Coastal Louisiana, Jesse Charles Troxler Dec 2013

Population Demographics And Genetic Structure Of Black Bears In Coastal Louisiana, Jesse Charles Troxler

Masters Theses

The range and abundance of the Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolus) were greatly diminished during the 20th century. This subspecies was reduced to 3 small, isolated subpopulations in Louisiana as bottomland hardwood habitat was converted to agriculture. These bears were listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1992 and a recovery plan was published in 1995. Recovery requires estimates of population parameters to evaluate current population status and future viability. I conducted a mark-recapture study from 2010 to 2012 to estimate demographic parameters of the coastal population of Louisiana black bears. Because inbreeding …


Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated With Performance Traits In Beef Cattle Grazing Endophyte-Infected Tall Fescue, Bryan Christopher Bastin Aug 2013

Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated With Performance Traits In Beef Cattle Grazing Endophyte-Infected Tall Fescue, Bryan Christopher Bastin

Masters Theses

Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum Schreb.) is the most prevalent forage in the Midsouth United States due in part to the presence of the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium coenophialum. The fungus, while conferring hardiness to tall fescue, contributes to decreased production efficiency in cow-calf operations. A previous genome-wide association study was performed using the Illumina 50k bovine SNP chip. Twenty-four SNP were found to be associated (P < 0.05) with adjusted birth weight and adjusted 205-day weights of calves from 48 beef cows at Ames Plantation. The first objective was to validate each SNP by testing associations with several additional phenotypes. Custom Taqman genotyping assays (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) were subsequently designed to genotype each SNP in beef cattle located at Tennessee Tech University (n = 654), to validate associations in a large, independent herd. The results yielded 15 associations that were significant (P < 0.05) with 6 phenotypes linked to those affected by fescue toxicosis. The second objective investigated the link between fescue toxicosis and the XK, Kell blood group complex subunit-related, member 4 …


Microarray Analysis Of Mrna Translation State In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Bayu Sisay Tiruneh May 2013

Microarray Analysis Of Mrna Translation State In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Bayu Sisay Tiruneh

Masters Theses

The synthesis of proteins – translation – is one of the cellular processes that consume a great deal of energy. Genome-wide assays performed in Arabidopsis and other organisms have revealed that the translation status of mRNAs responds dramatically to different stresses and environmental and growth signals. Similar assays have revealed how translation of specific mRNAs is perturbed by genetic mutations in eukaryotic translation initiation factors (eIFs). I performed genome-wide analyses of translation state in A. thaliana seedlings with mutant genotypes for a specific eIF (subunit h of eIF3) and the large ribosomal protein, L24 (RPL24B). Using data from prior microarray …