Life Sciences Commons^™

Iron Signaling In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Celina Abundis

Masters Theses

Iron is among the essential micronutrients for all living organisms and is a cofactor for many cellular redox reactions. Although iron is a highly abundant metal element found in the earth’s crust, it is also a limiting factor in plant development when it is present as insoluble ferric oxides. Plants have evolved two strategies to acquire soluble iron referred to as Strategy I and Strategy II. Our lab has focused on the Arabidopsis thaliana double mutant ysl1ysl3. The mutants display a chlorotic phenotype and are unable to correctly respond to iron deficiency.

Grafting is a common method for joining …

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 …

Variations In The Invertebrate Communities Of Wild Cape Cod Cranberry Bogs, Barbara Wagner

Masters Theses

As a species domesticated only in the last century, agricultural cranberry plants (Vaccinium macrocarpon) remain little removed from their wild relatives. Thus, it is a potential model species for studies of the earliest stages of domestication; however, there is little available quantitative information on its wild population biology and ecology. As such information is vital to studies of the ecological changes occurring during domestication, the purpose of this study was to consolidate the relevant knowledge available and conduct a preliminary search for patterns in the invertebrate communities of wild bogs. The alpha diversity was found to be greater …