Life Sciences Commons^™

Inflammatory Mediation Of Heat Stress-Induced Growth Deficits In Livestock And Its Potential Role As A Target For Nutritional Interventions: A Review, Micah S. Most, Dustin T. Yates

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Heat stress is detrimental to well-being and growth performance in livestock, and systemic inflammation arising during chronic heat stress contributes to these poor outcomes. Sustained exposure of muscle and other tissues to inflammation can impair the cellular processes that facilitate muscle growth and intramuscular fat deposition, thus reducing carcass quality and yield. Climate change is expected to produce more frequent extreme heat events, increasing the potential impact of heat stress on sustainable livestock production. Feedlot animals are at particularly high risk for heat stress, as confinement limits their ability to seek cooling from the shade, water, or breeze. Economically practical …

Epigenetic Mechanisms As Drivers Of Environmental Responses In Stony Corals, Javier A. Rodriguez Casariego

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current pace of anthropogenic global change is imposing unprecedented conditions to biological systems. Coral reef ecosystems are particularly sensitive to the rapid increase in thermal anomalies and the changes in water chemistry caused by global change. However, although their decline has been documented worldwide, there are signs suggesting that stony corals harbor greater phenotypic plasticity than previously expected, sparking the interest in the study acquired non-genetic modifications (e.g., epigenome, microbiome) potentially increasing their resilience to global change, and constituting one of the main targets for intervention.

Epigenetics constitutes an exciting frontier to understand how the environment influences the regulation …

Temperature Regulation Of Plant Hormone Signaling During Stress And Development, Christian Castroverde, Damaris Dina

Biology Faculty Publications

Global climate change has broad-ranging impacts on the natural environment and human civilization. Increasing average temperatures along with more frequent heat waves collectively have negative effects on cultivated crops in agricultural sectors and wild species in natural ecosystems. These aberrantly hot temperatures, together with cold stress, represent major abiotic stresses to plants. Molecular and physiological responses to high and low temperatures are intricately linked to the regulation of important plant hormones. In this review, we shall highlight our current understanding of how changing temperatures regulate plant hormone pathways during immunity, stress responses and development. This article will present an overview …

Historic Declines In Growth Portend Trembling Aspen Death During A Contemporary Leaf Miner Outbreak In Alaska, Melissa A. Boyd, Logan T. Berner, Adrianna C. Foster, Scott J. Goetz, Brendan M. Rogers, Xanthe J. Walker, Michelle C. Mack

Aspen Bibliography

Climate change-driven droughts and insect outbreaks are becoming more frequent and widespread, increasing forest vulnerability to mortality. By addressing the impacts of climate and insects on tree growth preceding death, we can better understand tree mortality risk under a changing climate. Here, we used tree stature and interannual growth (basal area increment; BAI) to assess processes leading to trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) survival or mortality during an unprecedented leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) outbreak in boreal North America. We identified eight sites (22 plots) in the longest running forest monitoring network in Alaska, spanning ~350 km of …

Metagenomic Identification And Classification Of The Mercury-Methylating Gene Hgca In Response To Water Table And Plant Functional Group Manipulations In Peat Soil, Madeline Peterson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Methyl-mercury (MeHg) is a potent neurotoxin that threatens the health of humans and wildlife alike. Climate warming threatens to shift regional precipitation and climate regimes in peatland environments, which could destabilize northern peatlands and accelerate both Hg release from soil and MeHg production. Peatlands are among the leading hotspots for MeHg, yet little is known about the community composition or functional relationship of mercury-methylating microbes in response to varying environmental conditions. The recognized mercury-methylating genes responsible for this activity are the obligatory gene pair hgcA and hgcB. Metagenomic data from the full-factorial peatland mesocosm experiment PEATcosm was obtained to …