Life Sciences Commons^™

Fungal Co-Pathogenicity On Panax Quinquefolius, Andrea Ong

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is a perennial crop commonly grown for its medicinal properties. Ginseng replant disease (GRD) is a condition that prevents the re-cultivation of ginseng in previous ginseng gardens and is normally associated with extensive root rot caused by the fungus Ilyonectria mors-panacis. My project aims to investigate the relationship common GRD fungal pathogens and their pathogenicity on 1 year old ginseng seedlings.

A Bacterial Microbiome Analysis Of Solarized Ginseng Garden Soils, Anka Colo

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is a highly valued perennial crop grown for its roots during a four-year cultivation cycle. American ginseng is subject to ginseng replant disease (GRD) in which severe root rot develops in newly planted ginseng grown in a former ginseng garden. A common strategy to mitigating GRD is not available and techniques such as fumigation, fungicides, and biocontrol are ineffective, banned, or are slowly being phased out. Alternatively, soil solarization is a pre-plant technique used to treat soil to reduce disease inoculum and alter soil microbiomes. In summer 2019, a six-week soil solarization experiment was …

Screening For The Effects Of Signalling Types In Fruitless Containing Neuron Affecting Social Space And Climbing, Khadijat Oluwakemi Mosuro

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Knockdown of neurotransmitter signalling types in the Fruitless neuron to see how they affect social space and climbing in the Drosophila melanogaster

Assessing The Role Of Integrins In Contact Guidance By Substratum Topography, Robin S. Hong

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

In this project, the effect of blocking integrin subunits on contact guidance of human periodontal ligament fibroblasts were assessed. Imaging was gathered through Timelapse imaging of live cells as well as immunohistochemistry of fixed cells at designated timepoints.

Examining The Effect Of Knocking Down Dopamine Receptors In Fruitless Sexually Dimorphic Neurons On Social Spacing, Avneet A. Sahota

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Social behaviour is an individual's response to others within a group. From humans to mice to even fruit flies, social behaviour involves interactions with others and their ability to exchange information. Social spacing is a type of social behaviour which measures the distance between two organisms. It is a balance of attractive and repulsive cues which are influenced by genetics and by the external environment. However, individuals with disorders such as autism spectrum or Williams syndrome display abnormal social spacing as they are unable to understand social and non-social cues. Also, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is a contributing factor …

Investigating The Biological Function Of Female-Specific Fruitless Transcripts, Liam Mcfarlane

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

In Drosophila, the fruitless (fru) gene encodes an array of alternatively spliced transcription factors, some of which are sex-specifically spliced. The male-specific transcript (fru^M) has been previously determined to be involved in male courtship behaviours. The female counterpart (fru^F) however, has been assumed to have no function due to the incorporation of a stop codon near the 5' end of the transcript. Interestingly, RNAseq data shows that expression levels of fru^F in females exceeds that of fru^M in males in the brain and thoracoabdominal ganglion, bringing to …

The Impact Of Mental Fatigue On Motor Unit Firing Behaviour: A Pilot Study, Bernadette C. Tierney Ms.

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Examining the effects of muscle fatigue on force and motor unit firing behaviour using surface electromyography to quantify motor unit firing behaviour.

Effect Of Carbon Monoxide Releasing Molecule 3 (Corm - 3) On Platelet Adhesion To Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells, Najat S. El-Farra

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Sepsis is characterized by the widespread inflammation of the body. Systemic inflammation activates and recruits inflammatory cells (e.g., leukocytes) and platelets to the affected organs.

During these inflammatory conditions, human brain microvascular endothelial cells (hBMEC) and platelets both upregulate adhesive molecules rendering platelets to adhere to hBMEC.

Although carbon monoxide is thought of as a toxic molecule to many, previous work shows its anti-inflammatory properties. Evidence has shown carbon monoxide-releasing molecules (e.g., CORM-3; that release small, non-toxic amounts of CO) can combat the effects of severe inflammation in several in vivo animal model.

In this current study, we are looking …

Optimization Of Dna Extraction From Difficult Sandy-Loam Soils, Anka Colo

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Ginseng is a high value perennial crop grown for its roots. A four-year cultivation cycle is required to obtain marketable ginseng roots, during which a condition called ginseng replant disease (GRD) develops. GRD is characterized by a severe root rot disease, and prevents the growth of newly planted ginseng in a former ginseng garden1. Microbiome analysis of ginseng garden soil will help our understanding of the formation of GRD and its severity. However, extracting DNA from the sandy-loam soils required for ginseng cultivation is difficult. Commercial kits are either too expensive or not applicable to the large volumes of soil …

Familiarity As A Motivator For Information-Seeking, Danielle Raynes-Goldfinger

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Curiosity is an integral part of motivation and results in information-seeking behaviors to obtain rewarding information. Theories on curiosity suggest that it occurs when an information gap is detected. Here, we explored whether the assessment of familiarity may result in the induction of curiosity. We employed 3 phases, the first involving memorization of face-name pairs. Next, participants were presented with new and the old faces and were asked to judge whether they fully remembered the name, whether the face was familiar despite the name being unrecallable, or whether the face nor name was familiar. To conclude, we allowed participants to …

Investigating Stop Codon Readthrough In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Amy Kwon

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Stop codon readthrough occurs via genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, resulting in a longer polypeptide chain at the C-terminus. Although these readthroughs may seem like an error made by translational mechanisms, evidence from yeast suggests that stop codon readthrough has an impact on various cellular processes. Readthrough has the potential to create genetic diversity, similar to RNA splicing, mRNA editing, and protein modification. The diversity created by translational readthrough may result in a beneficial change in phenotype, and thus have a role in evolution and adaptability. Translational readthrough is observed in organisms such as yeast and E. coli but may also …

Using Wgcna For Comprehensive Understanding Of Genes Involved In Suberin Biosynthesis From Rna-Seq Data Analysis, Stephanie Wu

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Suberin is a heteropolymer comprising a cell wall-bound poly(phenolic) domain (SPPD) covalently linked to a poly(aliphatic) domain (SPAD) that is deposited between the cell wall and plasma membrane (Woolfson 2018). Previous studies have measured phenolic and/or fatty acid compounds in suberized tissues, and for many of these the biosynthesis is known, However, restricting analyses to only those biomolecules that are known does not yield new information about other genes that may be involved. This experiment serves to identify suberin associated gene clusters within Modules, based on an analysis of their expression patterns using Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA). Once …