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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Testing Evolutionary Conservation Of Sex Determination In Lepidoptera Using Crispr/Cas9 Gene Editing, Sophia Schroeder
Testing Evolutionary Conservation Of Sex Determination In Lepidoptera Using Crispr/Cas9 Gene Editing, Sophia Schroeder
Honors Theses
The mechanism of sex determination in Lepidoptera is largely unexplored, and limited to knowledge of only a few genes. Adult Lepidoptera have obvious sexually dimorphic qualities, such as their genitalia. However, significant sex determination genes are not imperative for the adult developmental stage. Knockouts of some sex determination genes (doublesex isoforms) are shown to be lethal in the embryonic and larval stages of development in several animals. However, it is unclear whether this is due to their respective impact on sex determination and sexual dimorphism, or the existence of another function, such as pleiotropy, within a particular gene. Moreover, …
Modeling Jadera Haematoloma’S Phenotypic Variation In The Context Of Its Developmental Plasticity, Michael C. Yorsz
Modeling Jadera Haematoloma’S Phenotypic Variation In The Context Of Its Developmental Plasticity, Michael C. Yorsz
Honors Theses
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to integrate information from environmental cues to inform the development of its phenotype and remains understudied in biology. Models of plasticity are needed because evolution in the presence of plasticity is poorly understood. Jadera haematoloma, a hemimetabolous true bug, is an excellent animal model of plasticity, exhibiting a non-linear plastic response to juvenile nutrition that biases adult development into groups with differences in flight capability, wing shape, and fecundity. However, there is a lack of literature consensus regarding the range of developmental outcomes in the species. Some publications report the presence …
Microbiome Community And Parasitic Infections In Wild Bees, Mark G. Young
Microbiome Community And Parasitic Infections In Wild Bees, Mark G. Young
Honors Theses
The microbiome is increasingly recognized for its complex relationship with host fitness. Akin to primates and other social animals, bumblebees harbor a specific microbiome derived from social contact. The bumblebee microbiome is characteristically species poor, with just a few “core” phylotypes accounting for the majority of total abundance. Genomic analyses reveal phylogenetic congruence and adaptation of the core endosymbionts to the bumblebee gut, indicating a shared evolutionary history. Prior investigations reveal that the relative abundance of core microbes is negatively associated with infection by a trypanosome, Crithidia bombi, and that the microbiome has a mechanistic role in immunity. As …
Development And Validation Of Gene Delivery Methods For Crassostrea Virginica, Adrienne N. Tracy
Development And Validation Of Gene Delivery Methods For Crassostrea Virginica, Adrienne N. Tracy
Honors Theses
The Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is an important part of the East Coastal USA economy because aquaculture creates jobs. Sadly, the oysters are under constant threat due to increasing pollution, red tides, and diseases. Bivalves, and oysters in particular, are also becoming potential model organisms in medical research. With the sequencing of the oyster genome, scientists are focusing on deciphering the function of the predicted genes. However, the limited number of molecular and cellular tools available makes functional annotation of the genome challenging. A consistent, replicable gene delivery system needs to be developed to assess gene function and understand the …
Insects And The Evolution Of Developmental Pathways: Functional Analysis Of Genetic Sex Determination Mechanisms In Oncopeltus Fasciatus, Josefine Just
Honors Theses
Natural selection alters genetic pathways over evolutionary time. However, different pathways have been shown to maintain mutations at varying rates, leading to different levels of conservation across developmental pathways. Sex determination pathways, in particular, show vast diversity across animals despite the fundamental conservation of biological sex itself. Here, I investigated the sex determination pathway of the hemimetabolous insect, Oncopeltus fasciatus. The large milkweed bug, O. fasciatus, is part of the order Hemiptera, which provides a relevant outgroup study to other insects in which sex determination has been studied to date. I studied three sex determination genes, intersex, fruitless …
Investigating Phosphorylation Patterns And Their Effect On The Activity Of Transcription Factor Taabf1 In Imbibing Cereal Grains, Grace Uwase
Honors Theses
The wheat transcription factor TaABF1 plays an important role in hormone-mediated regulation of seed dormancy and germination of cereal grains. Evidence shows that TaABF1 activity is regulated by phosphorylation, and previous work in our lab showed that when serine residues in its conserved regions; S36, S37, S113, S115 were altered to phosphomimetic aspartate, the 4xD TaABF1 mutant had increased activity as a transcription factor. However, when only S113 was altered, TaABF1’s activity was greatly reduced. The work presented here explored whether the S36D/S37D/S115D mutant would have stronger activity than the 4xD mutant. Using the particle bombardment technique to introduce the …
The Differential Roles Of D-Pax2 Variants In Regulating Drosophila Eye And Bristle Development, Colin J. O’Shea
The Differential Roles Of D-Pax2 Variants In Regulating Drosophila Eye And Bristle Development, Colin J. O’Shea
Honors Theses
The ability to appropriately interact with the environment is crucial to an organism’s survival. The establishment of functional sensory systems, such as the bristles and eyes in Drosophila, is a critical event during the development of the organism. The transcription factor D Pax2 is involved in the differentiation of the shaft and glial cells in the developing bristle (Kavaler et al., Dev, 126:2261-2272, 1999) and of the cone and primary pigment cells in the developing eye (Fu and Noll, Genes Dev, 11:389-405, 1997). How D-Pax2 contributes to distinct differentiative pathways in different cell types is not known. Recent work by …
A Broad-Spectrum Mer Operon In A Multi-Drug Resistant Strain Of The Fish Pathogen, Aeromonas Salmonicida, Erin Parry
A Broad-Spectrum Mer Operon In A Multi-Drug Resistant Strain Of The Fish Pathogen, Aeromonas Salmonicida, Erin Parry
Honors Theses
Aeromonas salmonicida AS03, a potential fish pathogen, was isolated from Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, in 2003. This strain was found to be resistant to ≥1000 mM HgCl2 and ≥32 mM phenylmercuric acetate as well as multiple antimicrobials. Mercury (Hg) and antibiotic resistance genes are often located on the same mobile genetic elements, so the genetic determinants of both resistances and the possibility of horizontal gene transfer were examined. Specific PCR primers were used to amplify and sequence distinctive regions of the mer operon. A. salmonicida AS03 was found to have a pDU1358-like broad-spectrum mer operon, containing merB as well as …