Life Sciences Commons^™

The Evolutionary History Of An Accidental Model Organism, The Leopard Gecko Eublepharis Macularius (Squamata: Eublepharidae), Ishan Agarwal, Aaron M. Bauer, Tony Gamble, Varad B. Giri, Daniel Jablonski, Akshay Khandekar, Pratyush P. Mohapatra, Rafaqat Masroor, Anurag Mishra, Uma Ramakrishnan

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius, is a widely used model organism in laboratory and experimental studies. The high phenotypic diversity in the pet trade, the fact that the provenance of different breeding lines is unknown, and that distinct Eublepharis species are known to hybridize, implies that the continued use of E. macularius as a model requires clarity on the origin of the lineages in the pet trade. We combine multi-locus sequence data and the first range-wide sampling of the genus Eublepharis to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Eublepharidae and Eublepharis, with an updated time-tree for the Eublepharidae. …

Atypical Tuning And Amplification Mechanisms In Gecko Auditory Hair Cells, Maryline Beurg, Tony Gamble, Aaron H. Griffing, Robert Fettiplace

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The auditory papilla of geckos contains two zones of sensory hair cells, one covered by a continuous tectorial membrane affixed to the hair bundles and the other by discrete tectorial sallets each surmounting a transverse row of bundles. Gecko papillae are thought to encode sound frequencies up to 5 kHz, but little is known about the hair cell electrical properties or their role in frequency tuning. We recorded from hair cells in the isolated auditory papilla of the crested gecko, Correlophus ciliatus, and found that in both the nonsalletal region and part of the salletal region, the cells displayed …

Making (Remote) Sense Of Lianas, Geertje M. F. Van Der Heijden, Ashley D. C. Proctor, Kim Calders, Chris J. Chandler, Richard Field, Giles M. Foody, Sruthi M. Krishna Moorthy, Stefan A. Schnitzer, Catherine E. Waite, Doreed S. Boyd

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

1. Lianas (woody vines) are abundant and diverse, particularly in tropical ecosystems. Lianas use trees for structural support to reach the forest canopy, often putting leaves above their host tree. Thus they are major parts of many forest canopies. Yet, relatively little is known about distributions of lianas in tropical forest canopies, because studying those canopies is challenging. This knowledge gap is urgent to address because lianas compete strongly with trees, reduce forest carbon uptake and are thought to be increasing, at least in the Neotropics.
2. Lianas can be difficult to study using traditional field methods. Their pliable stems often twist …

Establishment Of Common House Geckos, Hemidactylus Frenatus Duméril & Bibron, On Saint Lucia, Aaron H. Griffing, David H. Griffing, Stephen Lesmond, Tony Gamble

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Similarities In Virulence And Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase Gene Profiles Among Cefotaxime-Resistant Escherichia Coli Wastewater And Clinical Isolates, Elizabeth Liedhegner, Brandon Bojar, Rachelle E. Beattie, Caitlin Cahak, Krassimira R. Hristova, Troy Skwor

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The World Health Organization has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the largest threats to human health and food security. In this study, we compared antibiotic resistance patterns between ESBL-producing Escherichia coli from human clinical diseases and cefotaxime-resistant environmental strains, as well as their potential to be pathogenic. Antibiotic susceptibility was tested amongst clinical isolates (n = 11), hospital wastewater (n = 22), and urban wastewater (n = 36, both influent and treated effluents). Multi-drug resistance predominated (>70%) among hospitalwastewater and urban wastewater influent isolates. Interestingly, isolates from clinical and urban treated effluents showed similar multi-drug …

Lianas Significantly Reduce Aboveground And Belowground Carbon Storage: A Virtual Removal Experiment, Sergio Estrada-Villegas, Sara Sofia Pedraza Navaez, Adriana Sanchez, Stefan A. Schnitzer

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Lianas are a quintessential tropical plant growth-form; they are speciose and abundant in tropical forests worldwide. Lianas compete intensely with trees, reducing nearly all aspects of tree performance. However, the negative effects of lianas on trees have never been combined and quantified for multiple tropical forests. Here, we present the first comprehensive standardized quantification of the effect of lianas on trees across tropical forests worldwide. We used data from 50 liana removal experiments and quantified the effect size of lianas on tree growth, biomass accretion, reproduction, mortality, leaf water potential, sap flow velocity, and leaf area index (LAI) across different …

Sex-Specific Aging In Animals: Perspective And Future Directions, Anne M. Bronikowski, Richard P. Meisel, Peggy R. Biga, James R. Walters, Judith E. Mank, Erica Larschan, Gerald S. Wilkinson, Nicole Valenzuela, Ashley Mae Conard, João Pedro De Magalhães, Jingyue (Ellie) Duan, Amy E. Elias, Tony Gamble, Rita M. Graze, Kristin E. Gribble, Jill A. Kreiling, Nicole C. Riddle

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Sex differences in aging occur in many animal species, and they include sex differences in lifespan, in the onset and progression of age-associated decline, and in physiological and molecular markers of aging. Sex differences in aging vary greatly across the animal kingdom. For example, there are species with longer-lived females, species where males live longer, and species lacking sex differences in lifespan. The underlying causes of sex differences in aging remain mostly unknown. Currently, we do not understand the molecular drivers of sex differences in aging, or whether they are related to the accepted hallmarks or pillars of aging or …

Response Of Antarctic Soil Fauna To Climate-Driven Changes Since The Last Glacial Maximum, Andre L.C. Franco, Byron J. Adams, Melisa A. Diaz, Nathan P. Lemoine, Nicholas B. Dragone, Noah Fierer, W. Berry Lyons, Ian Hogg, Diana H. Wall

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Understanding how terrestrial biotic communities have responded to glacial recession since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) can inform present and future responses of biota to climate change. In Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) have experienced massive environmental changes associated with glacial retreat since the LGM, yet we have few clues as to how its soil invertebrate-dominated animal communities have responded. Here, we surveyed soil invertebrate fauna from above and below proposed LGM elevations along transects located at 12 features across the Shackleton Glacier region. Our transects captured gradients of surface ages possibly up to 4.5 million years and the soils …

The Mitospecific Domain Of Mrp7 (Bl27) Supports Mitochondrial Translation During Fermentation And Is Required For Effective Adaptation To Respiration, Jessica M. Anderson, Jodie M. Box, Rosemary A. Stuart

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

We demonstrate here that mitoribosomal protein synthesis, responsible for the synthesis of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) subunits encoded by the mitochondrial genome, occurs at high levels during glycolysis fermentation and in a manner uncoupled from OXPHOS complex assembly regulation. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the mitospecific domain of Mrp7 (bL27), a mitoribosomal component, is required to maintain mitochondrial protein synthesis during fermentation but is not required under respiration growth conditions. Maintaining mitotranslation under high-glucose-fermentation conditions also involves Mam33 (p32/gC1qR homologue), a binding partner of Mrp7’s mitospecific domain, and together they confer a competitive advantage for a cell’s ability to adapt to …

Local Canopy Disturbance As An Explanation For Long-Term Increases In Liana Abundance, Stefan A. Schnitzer, David M. Defilippis, Marco Visser, Sergio Estrada-Villegas, Rigoberto Rivera-Camaña, Boris Bernal, Salomé Peréz, Abelino Valdéz, Seberino Valdéz, Antonio Aguilar, James W. Dalling, Eben N. Broadbent, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Stephen P. Hubbell, Maria Garcia-Leon

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Canopy disturbance explains liana abundance and distribution within tropical forests and thus may also explain the widespread pattern of increasing liana abundance; however, this hypothesis remains untested. We used a 10-year study (2007–2017) of 117,100 rooted lianas in an old-growth Panamanian forest to test whether local canopy disturbance explains increasing liana abundance. We found that liana density increased 29.2% and basal area 12.5%. The vast majority of these increases were associated with clonal stem proliferation following canopy disturbance, particularly in liana-dense, low-canopy gaps, which had far greater liana increases than did undisturbed forest. Lianas may be ecological niche constructors, arresting …

The Philosophy Of Outliers: Reintegrating Rare Events Into Biological Science, Chelsea N. Cook, Angela R. Freeman, James C. Liao, Lisa A. Mangiamele

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Individual variation in morphology, physiology, and behavior has been a topic of great interest in the biological sciences. While scientists realize the importance of understanding diversity in individual phenotypes, historically the “minority” results (I.e., outlier observations or rare events) of any given experiment have been dismissed from further analysis. We need to reframe how we view “outliers” to improve our understanding of biology. These rare events are often treated as problematic or spurious, when they can be real rare events or individuals driving evolution in a population. It is our perspective that to understand what outliers can tell us in …

Herbivores Alleviate The Negative Effects Of Extreme Drought On Plant Community By Enhancing Dominant Species, Chong Xu, Yuguang Ke, Honghui Wu, Melinda D. Smith, Nathan P. Lemoine, Weiguo Zhang, Qiang Yu

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Aims

Both extreme drought and insect herbivores can suppress plant growth in grassland communities. However, most studies have examined extreme drought and insects in isolation, and there is reason to believe that insects might alter the ability of grasslands to withstand drought. Unfortunately, few studies have tested the interactive effects of extreme drought and insect herbivores in grassland communities.

Methods

Here, we tested the drought–herbivore interactions using a manipulative experiment that factorially crossed extreme drought with the exclusion of insect herbivores in a temperate semiarid grassland in Inner Mongolia.

Important Findings

Our results demonstrated that both extreme drought and insect …

Phenology Dictates The Impact Of Climate Change On Geographic Distributions Of Six Co-Occurring North American Grasshoppers, Nathan P. Lemoine

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Throughout the last century, climate change has altered the geographic distributions of many species. Insects, in particular, vary in their ability to track changing climates, and it is likely that phenology is an important determinant of how well insects can either expand or shift their geographic distributions in response to climate change. Grasshoppers are an ideal group to test the hypothesis that phenology correlates with range expansion, given that co-occurring confamilial, and even congeneric, species can differ in phenology. Here, I tested the hypothesis that early- and late-season species should possess different range expansion potentials, as estimated by habitat suitability …

Comparative Riverscape Genomics Of The Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma Caeruleum) In Glaciated And Unglaciated Environments, Jon M. Luiken, Tony Gamble, Peter B. Berendzen

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Periodic glaciation during the Quaternary period shaped the contemporary riverscape and distribution of freshwater fishes in the Mississippi River drainage of central North America. The rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) is a member of this ichthyofauna and has a disjunct distribution in glaciated and unglaciated environments west of the Mississippi River. Based on glacial history of the region, there are different expectations on the observed spatial genetic structure of populations in these environments. The aim of this study was to utilize genome-wide SNP data to compare the population genomic structure of the rainbow darter in river networks with disparate …

Temperature Stressed Caenorhabditis Elegans Males Fail To Mate Successfully And Successful Males Produce Very Few Viable Cross Progeny, Nicholas B. Sepulveda, Lisa N. Petrella

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Exposure to moderate temperature stress can have profoundly negative effects on an organism’s reproductive capacity at temperatures where there are minimal or indiscernible effects on the organism as a whole. These negative effects are often more pronounced in males of the species that produce sperm. Previously we showed that few males of Caenorhabditis elegans wild type strains are able to successfully produce any cross progeny after experiencing temperature stress. However, these experiments did not assess the number of progeny from temperature stressed males. To understand if temperature stress can reduce the number of progeny a male sires, we crossed temperature …

Low Temperature Antioxidant Activity Qtl Associate With Genomic Regions Involved In Physiological Cold Stress Tolerance Responses In Rice (Oryza Sativa L.), Huy Phan, Michael Schläppi

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Boosting cold stress tolerance in crop plants can minimize stress-mediated yield losses. Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.), one of the most consumed cereal crops, originated from subtropical regions and is generally sensitive to low temperature environments. Within the two subspecies of rice, JAPONICA, and INDICA, the cold tolerance potential of its accessions is highly variable and depends on their genetic background. Yet, cold stress tolerance response mechanisms are complex and not well understood. This study utilized 370 accessions from the Rice Diversity Panel 1 (RDP1) to investigate and correlate four cold stress tolerance response phenotypes: membrane damage, …

The Timing Of Intermittent Hypoxia Differentially Affects Macronutrient Intake And Energy Substrate Utilization In Mice, Sarah N. Framnes-Deboer, Aaron A. Jones, Michelle Y. Kang, Kat Propsom, Lauren R. Nelson, Deanna M. Arble

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder characterized by periodic breathing cessation and intermittent hypoxia (IH). Although previous studies have demonstrated that IH alone can influence metabolic outcomes such as body weight, it remains unclear how the timing of IH can specifically affect these outcomes. Here, we examine how pairing 10-h periods of IH to either the animals’ resting phase (e.g., IH during the day) or active phase (e.g., IH during the night) differentially affects body weight, macronutrient selection, energy expenditure, respiratory exchange rate, and glucose tolerance. We find that in contrast to mice exposed to IH during the night, …

Heritable Cognitive Phenotypes Influence Appetitive Learning But Not Extinction In Honey Bees, Eda Sezen, Emily Dereszkiewicz, Alvin Hozan, Meghan M. Bennett, Cahit Ozturk, Brian H. Smith, Chelsea N. Cook

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Learning and attention allow animals to better navigate complex environments. While foraging, honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) learn several aspects of their foraging environment, such as color and odor of flowers, which likely begins to happen before they evaluate the quality of the food. If bees begin to evaluate quality before they taste food, and then learn the food is depleted, this may create a conflict in what the bee learns and remembers. Individual honey bees differ in their sensitivity to information, thus creating variation in how they learn or do not learn certain environmental stimuli. For example, foraging …

Antibiotic Resistance Patterns Of Escherichia Coli Isolates From The Clinic Through The Wastewater Pathway, Brandon Bojar, Jennifer Sheridan, Rachelle E. Beattie, Caitlin Cahak, Elizabeth Liedhegner, L. Silvia Munoz-Price, Krassimira R. Hristova, Troy Skwor

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains one of the leading global health threats. This study compared antimicrobial resistance patterns among E. coli isolates from clinical uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) to hospital wastewater populations and throughout an urban wastewater treatment facility – influent, pre- and post-chlorinated effluents. Antibiotic susceptibility of 201 isolates were analyzed against eleven different antibiotics, and the presence of twelve antibiotic resistant genes and type 1 integrase were identified. AMR exhibited the following pattern: UPEC (46.8%) > hospital wastewater (37.8%) > urban post-chlorinated effluent (27.6%) > pre-chlorinated effluent (21.4%) > urban influent wastewater (13.3%). However, multi-drug resistance against three or more antimicrobial classes was …

A Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly Of The Parasitoid Wasp, Cotesia Glomerata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), Brendan J. Pinto, Jerome J. Weis, Tony Gamble, Paul J. Ode, Ryan Paul, Jennifer M. Zaspel

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Hymenopterans make up about 20% of all animal species, but most are poorly known and lack high-quality genomic resources. One group of important, yet understudied hymenopterans are parasitoid wasps in the family Braconidae. Among this understudied group is the genus Cotesia, a clade of ~1,000 species routinely used in studies of physiology, ecology, biological control, and genetics. However, our ability to understand these organisms has been hindered by a lack of genomic resources. We helped bridge this gap by generating a high-quality genome assembly for the parasitoid wasp, Cotesia glomerata (Braconidae; Microgastrinae). We generated this assembly using multiple sequencing …

Effects Of Low-Level Artificial Light At Night On Kentucky Bluegrass And An Introduced Herbivore, Morgan Crump, Cassandra Brown, Robert J. Griffin-Nolan, Lisa Angenoli, Nathan P. Lemoine, Brett M. Seymoure

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Increasing evidence suggests that artificial light at night (ALAN) can negatively impact organisms. However, most studies examine the impacts of ALAN on a single species or under high levels of artificial light that are infrequent or unrealistic in urban environments. We currently have little information on how low levels of artificial light emanating from urban skyglow affect plants and their interactions with herbivores. We examined how short-term, low levels of ALAN affect grass and insects, including growth rate, photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance in grass, and foraging behavior and survival in crickets. We compared growth and leaf-level gas exchange of Kentucky …

Sex Chromosome Evolution Among Amniotes: Is The Origin Of Sex Chromosomes Non-Random?, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Tony Gamble, Michail Rovatsos

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Sex chromosomes are a great example of a convergent evolution at the genomic level, having evolved dozens of times just within amniotes. An intriguing question is whether this repeated evolution was random, or whether some ancestral syntenic blocks have significantly higher chance to be co-opted for the role of sex chromosomes owing to their gene content related to gonad development. Here, we summarize current knowledge on the evolutionary history of sex determination and sex chromosomes in amniotes and evaluate the hypothesis of non-random emergence of sex chromosomes. The current data on the origin of sex chromosomes in amniotes suggest that …

Do Male And Female Heterogamety Really Differ In Expression Regulation? Lack Of Global Dosage Balance In Pygopodid Geckos, Michail Rovatsos, Tony Gamble, Stuart V. Nielsen, Arthur Georges, Tariq Ezaz, Lukáš Kratochvíl

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Differentiation of sex chromosomes is thought to have evolved with cessation of recombination and subsequent loss of genes from the degenerated partner (Y and W) of sex chromosomes, which in turn leads to imbalance of gene dosage between sexes. Based on work with traditional model species, theory suggests that unequal gene copy numbers lead to the evolution of mechanisms to counter this imbalance. Dosage compensation, or at least achieving dosage balance in expression of sex-linked genes between sexes, has largely been documented in lineages with male heterogamety (XX/XY sex determination), while ZZ/ZW systems are assumed to be usually associated with …

A Brief Review Of Vertebrate Sex Evolution With A Pledge For Integrative Research: Towards ‘Sexomics’, Matthias Stock, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Heiner Kuhl, Michail Rovatsos, Ben J. Evans, Alexander Suh, Nicole Valenzuela, Frederic Veyrunes, Qi Zhou, Tony Gamble, Blanche Capel, Manfred Schartl, Yann Guiguen

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Triggers and biological processes controlling male or female gonadal differentiation vary in vertebrates, with sex determination (SD) governed by environmental factors or simple to complex genetic mechanisms that evolved repeatedly and independently in various groups. Here, we review sex evolution across major clades of vertebrates with information on SD, sexual development and reproductive modes. We offer an up-to-date review of divergence times, species diversity, genomic resources, genome size, occurrence and nature of polyploids, SD systems, sex chromosomes, SD genes, dosage compensation and sex-biased gene expression. Advances in sequencing technologies now enable us to study the evolution of SD at broader …

Microbial Find, Inform, And Test Model For Identifying Spatially Distributed Contamination Sources: Framework Foundation And Demonstration Of Ruminant Bacteroides Abundance In River Sediments, Corinne Wiesner-Friedman, Rachelle E. Beattie, Jill R. Stewart, Krassimira R. Hristova, Marc L. Serre

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Microbial pollution in rivers poses known ecological and health risks, yet causal and mechanistic linkages to sources remain difficult to establish. Host-associated microbial source tracking (MST) markers help to assess the microbial risks by linking hosts to contamination but do not identify the source locations. Land-use regression (LUR) models have been used to screen the source locations using spatial predictors but could be improved by characterizing transport (i.e., hauling, decay overland, and downstream). We introduce the microbial Find, Inform, and Test (FIT) framework, which expands previous LUR approaches and develops novel spatial predictor models to characterize the transported contributions. We …

Photoperiod Manipulation Reveals A Light-Driven Component To Daily Patterns Of Ventilation In Male C57bl/6j Mice, Aaron A. Jones, Lauren R. Nelson, Gabriella M. Marino, Nakia A. Chappelle, Deborah A.M. Joye, Deanna M. Arble

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder that increases risk for cardiovascular disease and mortality. The severity of sleep-disordered breathing in obstructive sleep apnea patients fluctuates with the seasons, opening the possibility that seasonal changes in light duration, or photoperiod, can influence mechanisms of breathing. Photoperiod can have profound effects on internal timekeeping and can reshape metabolic rhythms in mammals. While the daily rhythm in ventilation is largely shaped by the metabolic rate, less is known about whether ventilatory rhythms are altered in accordance with metabolism under different photoperiods. Here, we investigate the relationship between ventilation and metabolism under …

Slow-Onset, Potent Inhibition Of Mandelate Racemase By 2-Formylphenylboronic Acid. An Unexpected Adduct Clasps The Catalytic Machinery, Colin D. Douglas, Lia Grandinetti, Nicole M. Easton, Oliver P. Kuehm, Joshua A. Hayden, Meghan C. Hamilton, Martin St. Maurice, Stephen L. Bearne

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

o-Carbonyl arylboronic acids such as 2-formylphenylboronic acid (2-FPBA) are employed in biocompatible conjugation reactions with the resulting iminoboronate adduct stabilized by an intramolecular N–B interaction. However, few studies have utilized these reagents as active site-directed enzyme inhibitors. We show that 2-FPBA is a potent reversible, slow-onset inhibitor of mandelate racemase (MR), an enzyme that has served as a valuable paradigm for understanding enzyme-catalyzed abstraction of an α-proton from a carbon acid substrate with a high pK_a. Kinetic analysis of the progress curves for the slow onset of inhibition of wild-type MR using a two-step kinetic mechanism …

Biographical Feature: Karen C. Carroll, M.D., Erik Munson

Clinical Lab Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Draft Genome Sequence Of Staphylococcus Succinus Strain Gn1, Isolated From A Basement Floor In Milwaukee, Wi, Grant P. Nickolson, Nasim Maghboli Balasjin, Christopher Marshall

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

A strain of Staphylococcus succinus was sampled from the floor of the basement of a house and isolated in an undergraduate classroom in Milwaukee, WI. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of this strain.

Lianas Have More Acquisitive Traits Than Trees In A Dry But Not In A Wet Forest, Jose A. Medina-Vega, Frans Bongers, Lourens Poorter, Stefan A. Schnitzer, Frank J. Sterck

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

1. Lianas are increasing in relative abundance and biomass in many tropical forests. We tested the hypothesis that lianas conform to the fast and acquisitive end of the continuum of plant strategies, allowing lianas to acquire resources faster than trees.
2. We assessed functional traits representative of the leaf (LES) and wood economics spectrum (WES), including plant hydraulics, in 16 liana and 16 tree species in the canopy of two tropical forests at the extremes of the climatic and geological gradient across the Isthmus of Panama.
3. For both forests, we observed a trade-off between the construction of more productive leaves with rapid …