Life Sciences Commons^™

Did Androgen-Binding Protein Paralogs Undergo Neo- And/Or Subfunctionalization As The Abp Gene Region Expanded In The Mouse Genome?, Robert C. Karn, Amanda G. Chung, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The Androgen-binding protein (Abp) region of the mouse genome contains 30 Abpa genes encoding alpha subunits and 34 Abpbg genes encoding betagamma subunits, their products forming dimers composed of an alpha and a betagamma subunit. We endeavored to determine how many Abp genes are expressed as proteins in tears and saliva, and as transcripts in the exocrine glands producing them. Using standard PCR, we amplified Abp transcripts from cDNA libraries of C57BL/6 mice and found fifteen Abp gene transcripts in the lacrimal gland and five in the submandibular gland. Proteomic analyses identified proteins corresponding to eleven of the …

Beta Diversity Of Urban Floras Among European And Non-European Cities, Frank A. La Sorte, Myla F.J. Aronson, Nicholas S.G. Williams, Laura Celesti-Grapow, Sarel Cilliers, Bruce D. Clarkson, Rebecca W. Dolan, Andrew Hipp, Stefan Klotz, Ingolf Kühn, Pter Pyšek, Stefan Siebert, Marten Winter

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Aim- Cities represent an ideal study system for assessing how intensive land-use change and biotic interchange have altered beta diversity at broad geographic extents. Here we test the hypothesis that floras in cities located in disparate regions of the globe are being homogenized by species classified as invasive (naturalized species that have spread over a large area) or as a European archaeophyte (species introduced into Europe before ad 1500 from the Mediterranean Basin). We also test the prediction that the global influences of European activities (colonization, agriculture, commerce) have supported this outcome.

Location- One hundred and ten cities …

Nitrogen Fertilization Has A Stronger Effect On Soil Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterial Communities Than Elevated Atmospheric Co2, Sean T. Berthrong, Chris M. Yeager, Laverne Gallegos-Graves, Blaire Steven, Stephanie A. Eichorst, Robert B. Jackson, Cheryl R. Kuske

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Biological nitrogen fixation is the primary supply of N to most ecosystems, yet there is considerable uncertainty about how N-fixing bacteria will respond to global change factors such as increasing atmospheric CO₂ and N deposition. Using the nifH gene as a molecular marker, we studied how the community structure of N-fixing soil bacteria from temperate pine, aspen, and sweet gum stands and a brackish tidal marsh responded to multiyear elevated CO₂ conditions. We also examined how N availability, specifically, N fertilization, interacted with elevated CO₂ to affect these communities in the temperate pine forest. Based on data …

Bacon's Swamp- Ghost Of A Central Indiana Natural Area Past, Rebecca W. Dolan

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Bacon’s Swamp was identified in the 1920s as a ca. 12 ha glacial kettle lake bog system at the southernmost limits of these habitats in Indiana. Located just 9.6 km from the center of Indianapolis, the site was all but destroyed in the mid-20th century by urban expansion. Prior to habitat conversion at the site, Bacon’s Swamp was a frequent location for Butler University ecology class field trips and student research projects. Herbarium specimens and published inventory records allow for analysis of the historical vegetation of Bacon’s Swamp using modern techniques. Floristic Quality Assessment applied to these historical records reveals …

Mapping The Design Process For Urban Ecology Researchers, Alexander J. Felson, Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman, Tim Carter, Franco Montalto, Bill Shuster, Nikki Springer, Emilie K. Stander, Olyssa Starry

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The integration of research into the design process is an opportunity to build ecologically informed urban design solutions. To date, designers have traditionally relied on environmental consultants to provide the best available science; however, serious gaps in our understanding of urban ecosystems remain. To evaluate ecosystem processes and services for sustainable urban design and to further advance our understanding of social-ecological processes within the urban context, we need to integrate primary research into the urban design process. In this article, we develop a road map for such a synthesis. Supporting our proposals by case studies, we identify strategic entry points …

Movement And Habitat Use Of The Snapping Turtle In An Urban Landscape, Travis J. Ryan, William A. Peterman, Jessica D. Stephens, Sean C. Sterrett

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In order to effectively manage urban habitats, it is important to incorporate the spatial ecology and habitat use of the species utilizing them. Our previous studies have shown that the distribution of upland habitats surrounding a highly urbanized wetland habitat, the Central Canal (Indianapolis, IN, USA) influences the distribution of map turtles (Graptemys geographica) and red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta) during both the active season and hibernation. In this study we detail the movements and habitat use of another prominent member of the Central Canal turtle assemblage, the common snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina. We find the same …

Trials Of The Urban Ecologist, Rebecca W. Dolan, Tim Carter, Travis J. Ryan, Carmen M. Salsbury, Thomas E. Dolan, Marjorie Hennessy

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

A group of scientists describe some of the obstacles encountered and insights gained while carrying out ecological research in and around the city of Indianapolis.

The Role Of Retrotransposons In Gene Family Expansions: Insights From The Mouse Abp Gene Family, Václav Janoušek, Robert C. Karn, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Background: Retrotransposons have been suggested to provide a substrate for non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) and thereby promote gene family expansion. Their precise role, however, is controversial. Here we ask whether retrotransposons contributed to the recent expansions of the Androgen-binding protein (Abp) gene families that occurred independently in the mouse and rat genomes. Results: Using dot plot analysis, we found that the most recent duplication in the Abp region of the mouse genome is flanked by L1Md_T elements. Analysis of the sequence of these elements revealed breakpoints that are the relicts of the recombination that caused the duplication, confirming that the …

Acyl-Lipid Metabolism, Younghua Li-Beisson, Basil Shorrosh, Fred Beisson, Mats X. Andersson, Vincent Arondel, Philip D. Bates, Sébastien Baud, David Bird, Allan Debono, Timothy P. Durrett, Rochus B. Franke, Ian A. Graham, Kenta Katayama, Amélie A. Kelly, Tony Larson, Jonathan E. Markham, Martine Miquel, Isabel Molina, Ikuo Nishida, Owen Rowland, Lacey Samuels, Katherine M. Schmid, Hajime Wada, Ruth Welti, Changcheng Xu, Rémi Zallot, John Ohlrogge

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Acyl lipids in Arabidopsis and all other plants have a myriad of diverse functions. These include providing the core diffusion barrier of the membranes that separates cells and subcellular organelles. This function alone involves more than 10 membrane lipid classes, including the phospholipids, galactolipids, and sphingolipids, and within each class the variations in acyl chain composition expand the number of structures to several hundred possible molecular species. Acyl lipids in the form of triacylglycerol account for 35% of the weight of Arabidopsis seeds and represent their major form of carbon and energy storage. A layer of cutin and cuticular waxes …

Agricultural Management And Labile Carbon Additions Affect Soil Microbial Community Structure And Interact With Carbon And Nitrogen Cycling, Sean T. Berthrong, Daniel H. Buckely, Laurie E. Drinkwater

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We investigated how conversion from conventional agriculture to organic management affected the structure and biogeochemical function of soil microbial communities. We hypothesized the following. (1) Changing agricultural management practices will alter soil microbial community structure driven by increasing microbial diversity in organic management. (2) Organically managed soil microbial communities will mineralize more N and will also mineralize more N in response to substrate addition than conventionally managed soil communities. (3) Microbial communities under organic management will be more efficient and respire less added C. Soils from organically and conventionally managed agroecosystems were incubated with and without glucose (¹³C) …

Congenic Strain Analysis Reveals Genes That Are Rapidly Evolving Components Of A Prezygotic Isolation Mechanism Mediating Incipient Reinforcement, Christina M. Laukaitis, Corina Mauss, Robert C. Karn

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Two decades ago, we developed a congenic strain of Mus musculus, called b-congenic, by replacing the androgen-binding protein Abpa27^a allele in the C3H/HeJ genome with the Abpa27^b allele from DBA/2J. We and other researchers used this b-congenic strain and its C3H counterpart, the a-congenic strain, to test the hypothesis that, given the choice between signals from two strains with different a27 alleles on the same genetic background, test subjects would prefer the homosubspecific one. It was our purpose in undertaking this study to characterize the segment transferred from DBA to the C3H background in producing the b-congenic …

Soil C And N Changes With Afforestation Of Grasslands Across Gradients Of Precipitation And Plantation Age, Sean T. Berthrong, Gervasio Pinero, Esteban G. Jobbagy, Robert B. Jackson

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Afforestation, the conversion of unforested lands to forests, is a tool for sequestering anthropogenic carbon dioxide into plant biomass. However, in addition to altering biomass, afforestation can have substantial effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) pools, some of which have much longer turnover times than plant biomass. An increasing body of evidence suggests that the effect of afforestation on SOC may depend on mean annual precipitation (MAP). The goal of this study was to test how labile and bulk pools of SOC and total soil nitrogen (TN) change with afforestation across a rainfall gradient of 600–1500 mm in the Rio …

Taste Neophobia And C-Fos Expression In The Rat Brain, Jian-You Lin, Christopher T. Roman, Joe Arthurs, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

Taste neophobia refers to a reduction in consumption of a novel taste relative to when it is familiar. To gain more understanding of the neural basis of this phenomenon, the current study examined whether a novel taste (0.5% saccharin) supports a different pattern of c-Fos expression than the same taste when it is familiar. Results revealed that the taste of the novel saccharin solution evoked more Fos immunoreactivity than the familiar taste of saccharin in the basolateral region of the amygdala, central nucleus of the amygdala, gustatory portion of the thalamus, and the gustatory insular cortex. No such differential expression …

The Roles Of Gene Duplication, Gene Conversion And Positive Selection In Rodent Esp And Mup Pheromone Gene Families With Comparison To The Abp Family, Robert C. Karn, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Three proteinaceous pheromone families, the androgen-binding proteins (ABPs), the exocrine-gland secreting peptides (ESPs) and the major urinary proteins (MUPs) are encoded by large gene families in the genomes of Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus. We studied the evolutionary histories of the Mup and Esp genes and compared them with what is known about the Abp genes. Apparently gene conversion has played little if any role in the expansion of the mouse Class A and Class B Mup genes and pseudogenes, and the rat Mups. By contrast, we found evidence of extensive gene conversion in many Esp genes although …

Living More Than Just Enough For The City: Persistence Of High-Quality Vegetation In Natural Areas In An Urban Setting, Rebecca W. Dolan, Jessica D. Stephens, Marcia E. Moore

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Urban environments pose special challenges to flora, including altered disturbance regimes, habitat fragmentation, and increased opportunity for invasion by non-native species. In addition, urban natural area represents most people’s contact with nature, given the majority of the world’s population currently live in cities. We used coefficients of conservatism (C-values), a system that ranks species based on perceived fidelity to remnant native plant communities that retain ecological integrity, to quantify habitat quality of 14 sites covering 850 ha within the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Midwestern United States. All sites contained significant natural area and were inventoried via intensive complete …

African Elephants Change Gaits When Walking Downhill, Robert H.I. Dale, Robert Warren, Brock Ward, Eric Noble

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Abstract from the International Elephant and Rhino Conservation and Research Symposium, Rotterdam, NL, October 10-14, 2011.

Documenting Effects Of Urbanization On Flora Using Herbarium Records, Rebecca W. Dolan, Marcia E. Moore, Jessica Stephens

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

1. As human populations increasingly live in cities, urban floras and the ecosystem services they provide are under increasing threat. Understanding the effects of urbanization on plants can help to predict future changes and identify ways to preserve biological diversity. Relatively few studies document changes through time in the flora of a focal region and those that do primarily address European floras. They often rely on contemporary spatial gradient studies as surrogates for changes with time.

2. We compare historical species records (prior to 1940) with the current flora for Marion County, Indiana, USA, home to Indianapolis, the 13th largest city in …

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Positive Selection Shaped The Convergent Evolution Of Independently Expanded Kallikrein Subfamilies Expressed In Mouse And Rat Saliva Proteomes, Robert C. Karn, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We performed proteomics studies of salivas from the genome mouse (C57BL/6 strain) and the genome rat (BN/SsNHsd/Mcwi strain). Our goal was to identify salivary proteins with one or more of three characteristics that may indicate that they have been involved in adaptation: 1) rapid expansion of their gene families; 2) footprints of positive selection; and/or 3) sex-limited expression. The results of our proteomics studies allow direct comparison of the proteins expressed and their levels between the sexes of the two rodent species. Twelve members of the Mus musculus species-specific kallikrein subfamily Klk1b showed sex-limited expression in the mouse saliva proteomes. …

Birth Statistics For African (Loxodonta Africana) And Asian (Elephas Maximus) Elephants In Human Care: History And Implications For Elephant Welfare, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) have lived in the care of humans for many years, yet there is no consensus concerning some basic parameters describing their newborn calves. This study provides a broad empirical basis for generalizations about the birth heights, birth weights, birth times and gestation periods of elephant calves born in captivity. I obtained data concerning at least one of these four characteristics for 218 newborn calves from 74 institutions. Over the past 30 years, newborn Asian elephants have been taller and heavier than newborn African elephants. Neonatal African elephants exhibited …

A Survey Of The Management And Development Of Captive African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana) Calves: Birth To Three Months Of Age, Nicole L. Kowalski, Robert H.I. Dale, Christa L. H. Mazur

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

We used four surveys to collect information about the birth, physical growth, and behavioral development of 12 African elephant calves born in captivity. The management of the birth process and neonatal care involved a variety of standard procedures. All of the calves were born at night, between 7PM and 7AM. The calves showed a systematic progression in behavioral and physical development, attaining developmental milestones at least a quickly as calves in situ. This study emphasized birth-related events, changes in the ways that calves used their trunks, first instances of behaviors, and interactions of the calves with other, usually adult, elephants. …

Initial Findings On Visual Acuity Thresholds In An African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana), Melissa R. Shyan-Norwalt, Jeff Peterson, Barbara Milankow King, Timothy E. Staggs, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

There are only a few published examinations of elephant visual acuity. All involved Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and found visual acuity to be between 8′ and 11′ of arc for a stimulus near the tip of the trunk, equivalent to a 0.50 cm gap, at a distance of about 2 m from the eyes. We predicted that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) would have similarly high visual acuity, necessary to facilitate eye-trunk coordination for feeding, drinking and social interactions. When tested on a discrimination task using Landolt-C stimuli, one African elephant cow demonstrated a visual acuity of …

Genetic Variation In Past And Current Landscapes: Conservation Implications Based On Six Endemic Florida Scrub Plants, Eric S. Menges, Rebecca W. Dolan, Robert Pickert, Rebecca Yahr, Doria R. Gordon

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

If genetic variation is often positively correlated with population sizes and the presence of nearby populations and suitable habitats, landscape proxies could inform conservation decisions without genetic analyses. For six Florida scrub endemic plants (Dicerandra frutescens, Eryngium cuneifolium, Hypericum cumulicola, Liatris ohlingerae, Nolina brittoniana, and Warea carteri), we relate two measures of genetic variation, expected heterozygosity and alleles per polymorphic locus (APL), to population size and landscape variables. Presettlement areas were estimated based on soil preferences and GIS soils maps. Four species showed no genetic patterns related to population or landscape factors. The …

A Candidate Subspecies Discrimination System Involving A Vomeronasal Receptor Gene With Different Alleles Fixed In M. M. Domesticus And M. M. Musculus, Robert C. Karn, Janet M. Young, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Assortative mating, a potentially efficient prezygotic reproductive barrier, may prevent loss of genetic potential by avoiding the production of unfit hybrids (i.e., because of hybrid infertility or hybrid breakdown) that occur at regions of secondary contact between incipient species. In the case of the mouse hybrid zone, where two subspecies of Mus musculus (M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus) meet and exchange genes to a limited extent, assortative mating requires a means of subspecies recognition. We based the work reported here on the hypothesis that, if there is a pheromone sufficiently diverged between M. m. domesticus and …

Functional Interplay Between Chromatin Remodeling Complexes Rsc, Swi/Snf And Iswi In Regulation Of Yeast Heat Shock Genes, Tamara Y. Erkina, Y. Zou, S. Freeling, V. I. Vorobyev, Alexander M. Erkine

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

Chromatin remodeling is an essential part of transcription initiation. We show that at heat shock gene promoters functional interactions between individual ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes play critical role in both nucleosome displacement and Pol II recruitment. Using HSP12, HSP82 and SSA4 gene promoters as reporters, we demonstrated that while inactivation of SNF2, a critical ATPase of the SWI/SNF complex, primarily affects the HSP12 promoter, depletion of STH1- a SNF2 homolog from the RSC complex reduces histone displacement and abolishes the Pol II recruitment at all three promoters. From these results, we conclude that redundancy between SWI/SNF and RSC complexes …

Basolateral Amygdala And Morphine-Induced Taste Avoidance In The Rat, Jamie Lovaglio, Jian-You Lin, Christopher T. Roman, Steve Reilly

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

The present experiment examined the influence of excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) on morphine-induced saccharin avoidance. Neurologically intact subjects rapidly learned to avoid drinking the taste conditioned stimulus (CS), an effect that was sustained throughout the experiment. Although the BLA-lesioned (BLAX) rats showed CS avoidance over the first few trials, the effect was not sustained. That is, by the end of the experiment, the BLAX rats were drinking the same amount of saccharin after seven saccharin-morphine trials as they did on the first trial (i.e., prior to the morphine injections). Potential interpretations of the results are discussed including …

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 …