Life Sciences Commons^™

The Mechanism Of Expansion And The Volatility It Created In Three Pheromone Gene Clusters In The Mouse (Mus Musculus) Genome, Robert C. Karn, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Three families of proteinaceous pheromones have been described in the house mouse: androgen-binding proteins (ABPs), exocrine gland–secreting peptides (ESPs), and major urinary proteins (MUPs), each of which is thought to communicate different information. All three are encoded by large gene clusters in different regions of the mouse genome, clusters that have expanded dramatically during mouse evolutionary history. We report copy number variation among the most recently duplicated Abp genes, which suggests substantial volatility in this gene region. It appears that groups of these genes behave as low copy repeats (LCRs), duplicating as relatively large blocks of genes by nonallelic homologous …

Wolf Spiders Of The Pacific Region: The Genus Zoica (Araneae, Lycosidae), Volker W. Framenau, James W. Berry, Joseph A. Beatty

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The wolf spider genus Zoica Simon 1898 is currently known only from the Indo-Australasian region, including India in the west to northern Western Australia and Papua New Guinea in the east. Here we extend the known distribution of the genus into the Pacific region by describing two new species, Z. carolinensis new species from the Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Z. pacifica new species from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Conditioned Taste Aversion And Latent Inhibition Following Extensive Taste Preexposure In Rats With Insular Cortex Lesions, Christopher T. Roman, Jian-You Lin, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

Lesions of the insular cortex (IC) attenuate acquisition of conditioned taste aversions (CTAs). We have suggested that this impairment is the expected consequence of a failure of IC-lesioned (ICX) rats to recognize unfamiliar taste stimuli as novel. That is, ICX rats treat novel taste stimuli as if they are familiar and as a result show a latent inhibition-like retardation of learning. This account anticipates that ICX rats should acquire CTAs at the same slow rate as normal rats that are familiar with the taste stimulus. The present experiment confirmed this hypothesis in a design that compared CTA acquisition in normal …

Taste-Potentiated Odor Aversion Learning In Rats With Lesions Of The Insular Cortex, Jian-You Lin, Christopher T. Roman, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

The current study assessed the influence of excitotoxic lesions of the insular cortex (IC) on tastepotentiated odor aversion (TPOA) learning. Water-deprived rats initially received a single odortoxicosis or odor/taste-toxicosis pairing and were subsequently tested, in separate trials, with the odor and the taste stimulus. Indicating TPOA, neurologically intact rats conditioned with the odor/taste compound stimulus acquired significantly stronger odor aversions than normal rats conditioned with the odor stimulus. IC lesions disrupted TPOA, conditioned taste aversion and taste neophobia. The finding that taste did not potentiate odor aversion learning in the IC lesioned rats provides support for the “within-compound association” analysis …

Morphine-Induced Suppression Of Conditioned Stimulus Intake: Effects Of Stimulus Type And Insular Cortex Lesions, Jian-You Lin, Christopher T. Roman, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

Intake of an unconditionally preferred taste stimulus (e.g., saccharin) is reduced by contingent administration of a drug of abuse (e.g., morphine). We examined the influence of insular cortex (IC) lesions on morphine-induced suppression of an olfactory cue and two taste stimuli with different levels of perceived innate reward value. Two major findings emerged from this study. First, morphine suppressed intake of an aqueous odor as well as each taste stimulus in neurologically intact rats. Second, IC lesions disrupted morphine-induced suppression of the taste stimuli but not the aqueous odor cue. These results indicate that the perceived innate reward value of …

Taste, Olfactory And Trigeminal Neophobia In Rats With Forebrain Lesions, Jian-You Lin, Christopher T. Roman, Justin St. Andre, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

The present study was designed to examine whether lesions of the insular cortex (IC; Experiment 1), the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or medial amygdala (MeA; Experiment 2) influence the neophobic reactions to orally consumed liquid stimuli. Three different types of stimuli were used: taste (0.5% saccharin), olfactory (0.1% amyl acetate), and trigeminal (0.01 mM capsaicin). Rats with IC, BLA and MeA lesions showed normal responses to the olfactory and trigeminal stimuli. Each type of lesion, however, disrupted the initial occurrence of neophobia to the taste stimulus. The significance of these findings to conditioned taste aversion is discussed.

Insular Cortex Lesions And Morphine-Induced Suppression Of Conditioned Stimulus Intake In The Rat, Christopher T. Roman, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

The present experiment examined the influence of insular cortex (IC) lesions on the intake of a taste stimulus in a consummatory procedure that used morphine as the unconditioned stimulus. In normal rats, morphine caused a rapid reduction in saccharin intake when the taste was novel but not when it was familiar. Irrespective of stimulus novelty, morphine had little influence on the saccharin consumption of IC-lesioned rats. The results are discussed in terms of a lesion-induced disruption of (i) a reward comparison mechanism and (ii) the perception of taste novelty.

Basking Behavior Of Emydid Turtles (Chysemys Picta Marginata, Graptemys Geographica, And Trachemys Scripta Elegans) In An Urban Landscape, W. E. Peterman, Travis J. Ryan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Basking is common in emydid turtles and is generally accepted to be in thermoregulatory behavior. In 2004, we quantified and described the basking behavior of turtles in the Central Canal of Indianapolis. This canal system runs through an urban landscape that is dominated by fragmented woodlots, residential areas. and commercial areas. We observed that basking turtles exhibited variable basking behavior. with spatial and temporal shins in basking behavior from east-facing banks in the morning to west-facing banks in the afternoon. Turtles in the Central Canal are subject to frequent disturbance, which altered basking behavior. Many turtles forewent aerial basking on …

Afforestation Alters The Composition Of Functional Genes In Soil And Biogeochemical Processes In South American Grasslands, Sean T. Berthrong, Christopher W. Schadt, Gervasio Piñeiro, Robert B. Jackson

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Soil microbes are highly diverse and control most soil biogeochemical reactions. We examined how microbial functional genes and biogeochemical pools responded to the altered chemical inputs accompanying land use change. We examined paired native grasslands and adjacent Eucalyptus plantations (previously grassland) in Uruguay, a region that lacked forests before European settlement. Along with measurements of soil carbon, nitrogen, and bacterial diversity, we analyzed functional genes using the GeoChip 2.0 microarray, which simultaneously quantified several thousand genes involved in soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. Plantations and grassland differed significantly in functional gene profiles, bacterial diversity, and biogeochemical pool sizes. Most grassland …

A Global Meta-Analysis Of Soil Exchangeable Cations, Ph, Carbon, And Nitrogen With Afforestation, Sean T. Berthrong, Esteban G. Jobbagy, Robert B. Jackson

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Afforestation, the conversion of non-forested lands to forest plantations, can sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, but the rapid growth and harvesting of biomass may deplete nutrients and degrade soils if managed improperly. The goal of this study is to evaluate how afforestation affects mineral soil quality, including pH, sodium, exchangeable cations, organic carbon, and nitrogen, and to examine the magnitude of these changes regionally where afforestation rates are high. We also examine potential mechanisms to reduce the impacts of afforestation on soils and to maintain long-term productivity.

Across diverse plantation types (153 sites) to a depth of 30 cm of mineral …