Life Sciences Commons^™

Weed Risk Assessment For Aquatic Plants: Modification Of A New Zealand System For The United States, Doria R. Gordon, Crysta A. Gantz, Christopher L. Jerde, W Lindsay Chadderton, Reuben P. Keller, Paul D. Champion

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We tested the accuracy of an invasive aquatic plant risk assessment system in the United States that we modified from a system originally developed by New Zealand’s Biosecurity Program. The US system is comprised of 38 questions that address biological, historical, and environmental tolerance traits. Values associated with each response are summed to produce a total score for each species that indicates its risk of invasion. To calibrate and test this risk assessment, we identified 39 aquatic plant species that are major invaders in the continental US, 31 species that have naturalized but have no documented impacts (minor invaders), and …

Assessing The Use Of Non-Lethal Tail Clips For Measuring Stable Isotopes Of Plethodontid Salamanders, Joseph Milanovich, John C. Maerz

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Stable isotopes are increasingly used in ecology to study the diets, trophic position, and migratory patterns of wildlife including herpetofauna. When using stable isotopes, it is important to consider which tissues can or should be sampled, and how selecting tissues may affect the inferences drawn from stable isotope data. Amphibians offer fewer tissues than other larger organisms that can be harvested in sufficient quantity without killing the animal; however, many salamanders have tails that readily autotomize and regenerate. We used three species of plethodontid salamander (Plethodon cinereus, P. metcalfi, and Desmognathus quadramaculatus) to determine whether distal tail tissue had carbon …

Computational And Experimental Analyses Of Retrotransposon-Associated Minisatellite Dnas In The Soybean Genome, Lauren S. Mogil, Kamil Slowikowski, Howard M. Laten

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

BACKGROUND:

Retrotransposons are mobile DNA elements that spread through genomes via the action of element-encoded reverse transcriptases. They are ubiquitous constituents of most eukaryotic genomes, especially those of higher plants. The pericentromeric regions of soybean (Glycine max) chromosomes contain >3,200 intact copies of the Gmr9/GmOgre retrotransposon. Between the 3' end of the coding region and the long terminal repeat, this retrotransposon family contains a polymorphic minisatellite region composed of five distinct, interleaved minisatellite families. To better understand the possible role and origin of retrotransposon-associated minisatellites, a computational project to map and physically characterize all members of these families in the …

Miip: The Monomer Identification And Isolation Program, Christopher Bun, William Ziccardi, Jeffrey Doering, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

Repetitive elements within genomic DNA are both functionally and evolutionarily informative. Discovering these sequences ab initio is computationally challenging, compounded by the fact that selection on these repeats is often relaxed; thus sequence identity between repetitive elements can vary significantly. Here we present a new application, the Monomer Identification and Isolation Program (MiIP), which provides functionality to both search for a particular repeat as well as discover repetitive elements within a larger genomic sequence. To compare MiIP’s performance with other repeat detection tools, analysis was conducted for synthetic sequences as well as several α21-II clones and HC21 BAC sequences. The …

Cbdb: The Codon Bias Database, Adam Hilterbrand, Joseph Saelens, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

Background

In many genomes, a clear preference in the usage of particular codons exists. The mechanisms that induce codon biases remain an open question; studies have attributed codon usage to translational selection, mutational bias and drift. Furthermore, correlations between codon usage within host genomes and their viral pathogens have been observed for a myriad of host-virus systems. As such, numerous studies have investigated codon usage and codon bias in an effort to better understand how species evolve. Numerous metrics have been developed to identify biases in codon usage. In addition, a few data repositories of codon bias data are available, …

Rotating Magnets Produce A Prompt Analgesia Effect In Rats, Zhong Chen, Hui Ye, Haiyun Xu, Shukang An, Anmin Jin, Chusong Zhou, Shaoan Yang

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The beneficial effects of chronic/repeated magnetic stimulation on humans have been examined in previous studies. Although pain relief effects have been reported several weeks after magnetic treatment, no report is available regarding the prompt effect of magnetic stimulations. In this study, a novel apparatus was developed to generate time-varying magnetic fields with rotating magnets. Adult, conscious rats were exposed to the rotating magnets in a posture in which their spines were parallel to the induced electric current. The magnetic field suppressed the paw withdrawal reflex in the anesthetized rats, and the suppression effect disappeared 5 minutes after magnets stopped rotating. …

Urspelerpes Brucei, Carlos D. Campbell, Trip Lamb, Joseph Milanovich

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Do Species Distribution Models Predict Species Richness In Urban And Natural Green Space? A Case Study Using Amphibians, Joseph Milanovich, William E. Peterman, Kyle Barrett, Matthew Hopton

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.