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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

High Concentrations Of Trimethylamines In Slime Glands Inhibit Skein Unraveling In Pacific Hagfish, Gaurav Jain, Marie Starksen, Kashika Singh, Christopher Hoang, Paul Yancey, Charlene Mccord, Douglas S. Fudge Nov 2019

High Concentrations Of Trimethylamines In Slime Glands Inhibit Skein Unraveling In Pacific Hagfish, Gaurav Jain, Marie Starksen, Kashika Singh, Christopher Hoang, Paul Yancey, Charlene Mccord, Douglas S. Fudge

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Hagfish defend themselves from fish predators by producing large volumes of gill-clogging slime when they are attacked. The slime consists of seawater and two major components that are ejected from the slime glands: mucus and threads. The threads are produced within specialized cells and packaged into intricately coiled bundles called skeins. Skeins are kept from unraveling via a protein adhesive that dissolves when the skeins are ejected from the slime glands. Previous work revealed that hagfish slime glands have high concentrations of methylamines including trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), trimethylglycine (betaine) and dimethylglycine (DMG); however, the function of these compounds in the …


Development Of A Dna Mini-Barcoding Protocol Targeting Coi For The Identification Of Elasmobranch Species In Shark Cartilage Pills, Rowena J. Zahn, Anthony J. Silva, Rosalee S. Hellberg Sep 2019

Development Of A Dna Mini-Barcoding Protocol Targeting Coi For The Identification Of Elasmobranch Species In Shark Cartilage Pills, Rowena J. Zahn, Anthony J. Silva, Rosalee S. Hellberg

Food Science Faculty Articles and Research

Many elasmobranch (shark and ray) species are considered threatened and their identification in processed products is important for conservation and authentication purposes. However, identification of elasmobranch species in shark cartilage pills has proven difficult using existing methodologies. The objective of this study was to develop a DNA mini-barcoding protocol using a ~130 bp region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene for species identification in shark cartilage pills. A total of 22 shark cartilage products underwent DNA extraction in duplicate using the DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit (Qiagen). The effectiveness of a clean-up step following DNA extraction was …


Plasticity Of Foot Muscle And Cardiac Thermal Limits In The Limpet Lottia Limatula From Locations With Differing Temperatures, Terrance Wang, Richelle L. Tanner, Eric J. Armstrong, David R. Lindberg, Jonathon H. Stillman Sep 2019

Plasticity Of Foot Muscle And Cardiac Thermal Limits In The Limpet Lottia Limatula From Locations With Differing Temperatures, Terrance Wang, Richelle L. Tanner, Eric J. Armstrong, David R. Lindberg, Jonathon H. Stillman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Species distributions are shifting in response to increased habitat temperatures as a result of ongoing climate change. Understanding variation in physiological plasticity among species and populations is important for predicting these distribution shifts. Interspecific variation in intertidal ectotherms’ short-term thermal plasticity has been well established. However, intraspecific variation among populations from differing thermal habitats remains a question pertinent to understanding the effects of climate change on species’ ranges. In this study, we explored upper thermal tolerance limits and plasticity of those limits using a foot muscle metric and 2 cardiac metrics (Arrhenius breakpoint temperature, ABT, and flatline temperature, FLT) in …


Coral Reef Change Detection In Remote Pacific Islands Using Support Vector Machine Classifiers, Justin J. Gapper, Hesham El-Askary, Erik Linstead, Thomas Piechota Jun 2019

Coral Reef Change Detection In Remote Pacific Islands Using Support Vector Machine Classifiers, Justin J. Gapper, Hesham El-Askary, Erik Linstead, Thomas Piechota

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the abundance of research on coral reef change detection, few studies have been conducted to assess the spatial generalization principles of a live coral cover classifier trained using remote sensing data from multiple locations. The aim of this study is to develop a machine learning classifier for coral dominated benthic cover-type class (CDBCTC) based on ground truth observations and Landsat images, evaluate the performance of this classifier when tested against new data, then deploy the classifier to perform CDBCTC change analysis of multiple locations. The proposed framework includes image calibration, support vector machine (SVM) training and tuning, statistical assessment …


High Heat Tolerance Is Negatively Correlated With Upper Thermal Tolerance Plasticity In North Eastern Pacific Nudibranch Mollusks, Eric J. Armstrong, Richelle L. Tanner, Jonathon H. Stillman Jun 2019

High Heat Tolerance Is Negatively Correlated With Upper Thermal Tolerance Plasticity In North Eastern Pacific Nudibranch Mollusks, Eric J. Armstrong, Richelle L. Tanner, Jonathon H. Stillman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Rapid ocean warming may alter habitat suitability and population fitness for marine ectotherms. Susceptibility to thermal perturbations will depend in part on plasticity of a species’ upper thermal limits of performance (CTmax). However, we currently lack data regarding CTmax plasticity for several major marine taxa, including nudibranch mollusks, thus limiting predictive responses to habitat warming for these species. In order to determine relative sensitivity to future warming, we investigated heat tolerance limits (CTmax), heat tolerance plasticity (acclimation response ratio), thermal safety margins, temperature sensitivity of metabolism, and metabolic cost of heat shock in nine species …


Ecological Response Of Phytoplankton To The Oil Spills In The Oceans, Danling Tang, Jing Sun, Li Zhou, Sufen Wang, Ramesh P. Singh, Gang Pan Feb 2019

Ecological Response Of Phytoplankton To The Oil Spills In The Oceans, Danling Tang, Jing Sun, Li Zhou, Sufen Wang, Ramesh P. Singh, Gang Pan

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Oil spills in oceans have substantial influence on marine ecosystems. This study investigates 21 oil spills in the world. Analyzing Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiomerer (MODIS) data after Penglai oil spills on 4 June 2011, found a bloom with peak value of Chl-a (13.66 mg m−3) spread over an area of 800 km2 during 18–25 June 2011, and a pronounced increase in the monthly Chl-a concentration (6.40 mg m−3) on June 2012 in the Bohai Sea. Out of the 21 oil spills, 14 blooms were observed, while 11 …


Three-Dimensional Movements Of The Pectoral Fin During Yaw Turns In The Pacific Spiny Dogfish, Squalus Suckleyi, Sarah L. Hoffman, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Samantha C. Leigh, Elizabeth L. Brainerd, Marianne E. Porter Jan 2019

Three-Dimensional Movements Of The Pectoral Fin During Yaw Turns In The Pacific Spiny Dogfish, Squalus Suckleyi, Sarah L. Hoffman, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Samantha C. Leigh, Elizabeth L. Brainerd, Marianne E. Porter

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Fish pectoral fins move in complex ways, acting as control surfaces to affect force balance during swimming and maneuvering. Though objectively less dynamic than their actinopterygian relatives, shark pectoral fins undergo complex conformational changes and movements during maneuvering. Asynchronous pectoral fin movement is documented during yaw turning in at least two shark species but the three-dimensional (3D) rotation of the fin about the body axes is unknown. We quantify the 3D actuation of the pectoral fin base relative to the body axes. We hypothesized that Pacific spiny dogfish rotate pectoral fins with three degrees of freedom relative to the body …