Life Sciences Commons^™

Undergraduate Symposium Abstracts

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Comparing Economic Returns Of Red Pine Plantation Thinning Scenarios Using Forest Vegetation Simulator (Fvs), Curtis L. Vanderschaaf, Gordon Holley, Andrew Arends, Joshua Adams, Donald Deckard

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait) plantations are an important cover type of Department of Natural Resources (DNR) lands because of relatively high yields and economic value. Out of the approximate 400,000 acres of Minnesota red pine plantations one-fifth of the acreage is managed by the DNR. The DNR recently established a policy to rescind purposeful management to manage all red pine plantations to extended rotation ages, or rotation ages beyond those maximizing economic returns or biological yields. With recent state budget issues, DNR management is under greater scrutiny by the public, particularly on School Trust lands. Hence, most red pine …

Freshwater Silica-Scaled Heterotrophic Protista: Heliozoa, Thaumatomonad Flagellates, Amoebae, And Bicosoecids, From The Lake Itasca Region, Minnesota, Daniel E. Wujek

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Forty-nine plankton samples were collected from the Lake Itasca Region, Minnesota over a period sporadically covering the summers of 1980, 1981 and 1987. A total of 22 freshwater heterotrophic siliceous-scaled species were observed: 18 heliozoa, two thaumatomonad flagellates, one bicosoecid, and one testate amoeba. Scale identifications were based on transmission electron microscopy. New records for North America include two heliozoans and one thaumatomonad flagellate. Five heliozoa taxa and one thaumatomonad flagellate are new records for the U.S. Wujek DE. Freshwater silica-scaled heterotrophic protista: heliozoa, thaumatomonad flagellates, amoebae, and bicosoecids, from the Lake Itasca Region, Minnesota.

Food Habits Of The Hoary Bat In An Agricultural Landscape, Mathew K. Perlik, Brock R. Mcmillan, John D. Krenz

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Information on diets is fundamental to ecological studies. Prey use by the solitary, tree-roosting hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) in agricultural landscapes is not known. We examined the stomach contents and fecal material from carcasses of hoary bats collected during a mortality study at wind turbine sites in southwestern Minnesota. We compared diet of hoary bats to availability of prey to determine whether bats were opportunistic or selective. Food of the hoary bats primarily consisted of lepidopterans (moths; 49-50 %) and coleopterans (beetles; 28-40 %). The abundance of insects in the diet of hoary bats was not proportional to the estimated …

Minnesota Banded Darters (Etheostoma Zonale) Exhibit A High Degree Of Genetic Similarity In Mitochondrial Dna Sequences Occurrence, Jean Porterfield, Molly Fee, Jessica Theorin

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Hylogeography, or the historical interpretation of population genetic data, is a useful tool for addressing historical processes like the colonization history of organisms. North American freshwater fishes have experienced glacial ebb and flow in their relatively recent past (as little as 10,000 years before present in Minnesota), and studies of variation in intraspecific DNA sequences of these fishes can shed light on their radiations into previously glaciated areas. This study assessed intraspecific variation in two mitochondrial genes of the banded darter (Etheostoma zonale) from seven Minnesota localities. A high degree of similarity was found among all individuals in the study. …

A New Distributional Checklist Of Minnesota Fishes, With Comments On Historical Occurrence, Jay T. Hatch, Konrad P. Schmidt, Dann P. Siems, James C. Underhill, Robert A. Bellig, Richard A. Baker

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Historical documents, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stream surveys, and the 66,000 record distributional database of the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History (1879-2002) were used to produce a field-usable checklist of the 160 fish species known from Minnesota waters and waters shared with its boundary states and Canadian provinces. The checklist includes distribution by eight major drainages, the conservation status for each species, and reference to nomenclatural changes over the past 20 years. Fishes are arranged according to the latest interpretations of phylogenetic relationships among species and supraspecific taxa. New distributional information is presented for six species introduced …

Unusual Foraging Behavior By An Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciuridae: Sciurus Carolinensis) In An Urban Habitat, Brian S. Shaffer, Barry W. Baker

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

A unique observation of foraging by an Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is described. The squirrel was observed consuming insects that had been impacted on automobile radiators.

What We Know About Minnesota's First Endangered Fish Species: The Topeka Shiner, Jay T. Hatch

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

The Topeka shiner, Notropis topeka, is the first of Minnesota's native ichthyofauna to be classified as federally endangered. The species is in serious decline in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa but is far more common in Minnesota than once was thought. At present, it is known from 89 sites in 17 streams of the Missouri River Drainage. Topeka shiners are multiple-clutch spawning nest associates of sunfishes and reproduce over an eight- to ten-week period between late May and early August. Mean clutch size is 261 to 284. Longevity is three years. Males grow faster than females, reaching longer mean total …

Apoptosis Of Rat Myoblasts Is Induced In Vitro By Late, But Not Early, Wound Fluids, Raymond E. Sicard, Linh Nguyen, John Menezes

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Interstitial fluids from late wound repair environments are not "regeneration permissive" as judged by their inability to promote either proliferation or differentiation of myoblasts in vitro. This irwestigation considered whether apoptosis (induced death) was an alternative fate for myoblasts exposed to these interstitial fluids. Myoblast fate was assessed by cell counts, tritiated thymidine release, and propidium iodide staining. Fluids from early wounds increased mean cell counts and induced little thymidine release or propidium iodide labeling. In contrast, fluids from late wounds reduced cell counts and induced both thymidine release and propidium iodide labeling. These data suggest that interstitial fluids from …

Front Matter

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Symposia

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Symposia Papers given at the 68^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Winchell Papers

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Winchell Papers given at the 68^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Winchell Posters

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Winchell Posters given at the 68^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Front Matter

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Symposia

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Symposia Papers given at the 67^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Winchell Papers

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Winchell Papers given at the 67^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Winchell Posters

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Winchell Posters given at the 67^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Screening Pinus Sylvestris Grown For The Production Of Christmas Trees For Resistance To Western Gall Rust Peridermium Harknessii Using Different Sources Of Aeciospores, Todd A. Burnes, Jennifer Juzwik, Robert A. Blanchette

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Results showed a moderate to high susceptibility of Pinus sylvestris to western gall rust Peridermium harknessii from Pinus sylvestris in Michigan and Pinus banksiana in Minnesota. In general, Pinus sylvestris seed sources were more susceptible to aeciospores collected from Pinus sylvestris than aeciospores collected from Pinus banksiana.

Effect Of Human Disturbance On Small Mammal Communities In Itasca State Park, Minnesota, Nancy L. Staus, Kathleen Conforti, Leslie N. Clapper, Jennifer A. Longhenry, C. C. Schoenbauer, Michael S. Rentz, John R. Tester

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

We determined effects of different levels of human disturbance on small mammal richness and relative abundance from live-trapping data obtained in Itasca State Park in northwestern Minnesota. We developed a quantitative measure of human disturbance based on disturbance units and trapped small mammals on three study sites, each reflecting a different level of disturbance. Our data revealed that small mammal diversity decreased with increasing human disturbance. Amount of ground cover and litter depth also appeared to be important in explaining differences in the demographic patterns of small mammals among sites.

Antibodies To Surface Igm Can Accelerate Apoptosis Of Mature B-Lymphocytes At Sub - Stimulatory Concentrations, Erica Anderson-Nissen, Robert F. Ashman

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Antibody to B-cell surface immunoglobulin D (IgD) or surface IgM results in crosslinking of Ig molecules and signal transduction. The function of these surface immunoglobulins has traditionally been investigated by extensive crosslinking experiments and interest has been focused on activation assays. We investigated the effects on apoptosis of culture with anti-(mathematical symbol) antibody (anti-(mathematical symbol)) concentrations ranging from 0.001 (mathematical symbol) mL-1 to 50 (mathematical symbol)g mL-1. Previous experiments have shown that weak dose anti-(mathematical symbol) antibody (anti-(mathematical symbol)) increases mature B-cell apoptosis at both 16- and 64-hour time points, while greater dose anti-(mathematical symbol) results in cell cycle entry …

Cloning And Sequencing Of A Cellobiohydrolase Gene From Trichoderma Harzianum Fp108, Patrick Guilfoile, Ron Burns, Zu-Yi Gu, Matt Amundson, Fu-Hsian Chang

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

A cbh1 cellobiohydrolase gene was cloned and sequenced from the fungus Trichoderma harzianum FP108. The cloning was performed by PCR amplification of T. harzianum genomic DNA, using PCR primers whose sequence was based on the cbh1 gene from Trichoderma reesei. The 3' end of the gene was isolated by inverse PCR; attempts to clone regions upstream of the 5' end of the gene were unsuccessful. Sequence comparisons suggest that this gene is closely related to cbb1 genes from other Trichoderma species. In particular, all catalytically important amino acids in the protein sequence deduced from the T harzianum cbb1 gene are …

Front Matter

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Symposia

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Symposia Papers given at the 66^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Winchell Papers

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Winchell Papers given at the 66^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Winchell Posters

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Abstracts from the Winchell Posters given at the 66^th Annual Meeting for the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science.

Regeneration - The Road Not Taken, Raymond E. Sicard

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Regeneration and repair are mutually-exclusive, adaptive responses to injury. The events associated with each process are well characterized. However, cellular and molecular mechanisms for their regulation are only now beginning to be defined. Moreover, full appreciation for factors that predispose to these contrasting pathways is not yet available. This article presents a perspective on regeneration and repair that suggests specific relationships between these modes of responding to injury. Injury provokes a coordinated pattern of response to tissue damage. At the wound site, local events determine whether tissue restoration or replacement occurs. Interplay among parenchymal and stromal cells at the site …

Regenerative Biology: New Tissues For Old, David L. Stocum

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Throughout the human life cycle, tissues are regenerated either continuously to maintain tissue integrity in the face of normal cell turnover or in response to acute or chronic damage due to trauma or disease states. Blood, epithelia of skin and tubular organs, hair and nails, and bone marrow are examples of human tissues which regenerate continuously as well as in response to damage. Bone, muscle, adrenal cortex and kidney epithelium also regenerate in response to damage, and bone is continually remodeled in response to stress vectors.

The response of many other vital tissues to damage, however, is not regeneration but …

Wound Repair, Raymond E. Sicard, Jeffry D. Shearer, Michael D. Caldwell

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Following injury, a series of events is initiated that includes global and local reactions. Global reactions, such as inflammatory and immunological responses as well as adjustments in neural and endocrine status, are directed at marshaling the organism's resources for dealing with changes in its integrity and the potential threat of infection or other complications. Injury entails cell and tissue damage and often a physical breach in the barrier against the outside world (e.g., skin). Local reactions are exemplified by immediate hemostatic (e.g., blood clotting) events followed by changes in local cellular composition created by the inflammatory infiltrate and adjustments in …

Perspectives On Liver Regeneration, Janeen H. Trembley, Clifford J. Steer

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.