Life Sciences Commons^™

A Review On The Role Of Tomatoes In Pakistan's Agricultural Economy: Challenges And Strategies For White Fly (Bemisa Tabaci: Hemiptera) Management, Muhammad Wahid Khan, Zahid Hussain, Shahid Sattar, Fazal Maula

Journal of Bioresource Management

The largest sector of Pakistan's economy is agriculture. Tomatoes, considered both vegetables and fruits, are an essential part of the daily diet for people in the economy class as well as those with limited means, with per capita food consumption of 8.00 kg recorded in Pakistan. Tomatoes are a rich source of essential nutrients such as Vitamin C, A, and Iron, and naturally contain Lycopene, known for its antioxidant properties that can help prevent cancer. In Pakistan, tomato crops yield approximately 40 kg per acre, which is below the world average of 4.00 tons per acre. The Pakistan renowned tomato …

Cd46 Interaction With Adenovirus Type 64, A Causative Agent For Viral Pink Eye, Hanglin (Henry) Zhu

Honors Theses

Human adenovirus type 64 (Ad64) is a causative agent of contagious viral pink eye. We do not understand why Ad64 causes eye infections. One likely reason is the presence of a receptor molecule on the exposed surface of eye cells, but not other cells. Ad64 binds to a protein called CD46 on the cell surface. We aim to visualize how CD46 binds to the surface of Ad64. I mixed the extracellular portion of CD46 with purified Ad64 virus, then visualized it using negative stain transmission electron microscopy. In order to gain insight into how the virus binds CD46, we used …

Impact Of Cadmium Stress On Soil Virus Reproduction And The Persistence Of Viruses Under Abiotic Conditions, Zhibo Cheng

Doctoral Dissertations

Soil viruses are ubiquitous and greatly impact the structure and function of soil microbial communities, with their effects modulated by various environmental factors. This study investigates the inactivation of naturally occurring soil viruses in sterilized soil, as well as the effects of cadmium (Cd) exposure and carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) nutrient availability on the population dynamics of virus-host communities in agricultural soil.

Lab-scale slurry and unsaturated experiments were performed to examine virus inactivation in the absence of host bacteria in sterilized soil. In slurry experiments, virus abundance declined by over 90% after 10 days of incubation. The addition of …

Detection And Control Of Environmentally Transmissible Viruses, Anand R. Soorneedi

Doctoral Dissertations

Viruses, owing to their ubiquitous nature and ability to infect almost every other species, have long been a subject of interest for scientists. Some of the virus species can be very deadly to humans and animals alike and can impose a huge economic and health burden across the world. The recent CoVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of timely detection for developing effective intervention strategies. Unfortunately, some of the virus species that cause significant health and economic impacts do not have robust and reliable detection methods due to several reasons. In some cases, despite having gold standard methods for detection of …

Application Of New Molecular Tools To Assess Virus Viability In Production Animals, Declan C. Schroeder

Proceedings of the Arkansas Nutrition Conference

Persistent viral infections routinely impose an inconvenient, always costly but thankfully not all too often catastrophic outcome on our modern food system. Managing viruses is key for all concerned if our objective is to meet the ever-growing demand to high-value animal protein. Whether it’s the impact influenza A virus (IAV) has on the avian or swine industries, Porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRSV) on the swine or Deformed wing virus (DWV) on honey bees in both the honey and pollinator sectors - the negative impact and damaging cost to the individual producer, country and global economy cannot be overstated.

Mining Sars-Cov-2 Phylogenetic Trees To Estimate Circulating Infections And Patterns Of Migration, Erin V. Brintnell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to the formation of very large databases of genomic viral data. These databases contain information on transmission dynamics, emergence and evolution of SARS-CoV-2. However, extracting this information from sequences is difficult, as most methods of analyzing viral genomes were developed for smaller data sets. Therefore, my objective was to develop new fast estimators of the number of infections (I) and the rate of migration based on simple features of SARS-CoV-2 phylogenies.

I simulated pathogen evolution using a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) model of pathogen spread, reconstructing evolution using CoVizu. For simulations of I, I varied the total number …

An Overview Of Viruses And The Infamous Sars-Cov-2, Jake Sun

The Confluence

Background information on viruses is first presented which include topics like evolution, ecology, history, identification, structure, and application. The novel SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, pandemic originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Millions of people were infected with the virus in a short time period causing urgent concern worldwide. The purpose of this review is to provide a brief and general understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 to increase awareness and actions toward preventive measures. COVID-19 is a (+) ssRNA spherical enveloped virion that causes primarily respiratory illnesses. The S protein interacts with ACE-2 receptors on the host cell to gain entry …

Disinfectant Efficacy Against Sars-Cov-2 Surrogates, Bovine Coronavirus And Human Coronavirus Oc43, On Hard And Soft Non-Porous Surfaces, Breanna Kimbrell

All Theses

The novel human coronavirus (HCoV), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged from Wuhan, China in the latter part of 2019. The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 amid the most recent COVID-19 pandemic forced countless foodservice establishments (FSEs) across the United States to close, taking a tremendous toll on the foodservice industry. Although primarily transmitted person-to-person, previous studies indicate that the duration of SARS-CoV-2 survival on different environmental surfaces provides adequate time for secondary transmission to occur. To prevent the further spread of SARS-CoV-2, effective disinfection of surfaces in FSEs is necessary. While disinfectants approved for use against SARS-CoV-2 are …

Cell Volume As A Determinant Of Virus-Mediated Population Growth In Ciliates, Jace Miller, John Paul Delong Phd

Honors Theses

Many protists and other small aquatic organisms consume virus particles, a behavior known as virovory. Some species of protists, such as the ciliate Halteria grandinella, can grow and divide using viruses as their sole food source. Other ciliate species have previously been shown to consume large quantities of viral particles, but it is unclear if they are able to support population growth with viruses alone. Because large ciliates have a higher energy demand, we hypothesize that they will be unable to support population growth on a virus-only diet. We fed nine ciliate species a diet of chloroviruses and found …

Host-Genetic-Based Outcome Of Co-Infection By Pcv2b And Prrsv In Pigs, Christian W. Eaton, Hiep Vu, Arabella L. Hodges, Seth P. Harris, Stephen D. Kachman, Daniel C. Ciobanu

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Replication of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), an important worldwide swine pathogen, has been demonstrated to be influenced by host genotype. Specifically, a missense DNA polymorphism (SYNGR2 p.Arg63Cys) within the SYNGR2 gene was demonstrated to contribute to variation in PCV2b viral load and subsequent immune response following infection. PCV2 is known to induce immunosuppression leading to an increase in susceptibility to subsequent infections with other viral pathogens such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). In order to assess the role of SYNGR2 p.Arg63Cys in co-infections, pigs homozygous for the favorable SYNGR2 p.63Cys (N = 30) …

Early-Phase Drive To The Precursor Pool: Chloroviruses Dive Into The Deep End Of Nucleotide Metabolism, David Dunigan, Irina Agarkova, Ahmed Esmael, Sophie Alvarez, James L. Van Etten

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Viruses face many challenges on their road to successful replication, and they meet those challenges by reprogramming the intracellular environment. Two major issues challenging Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus 1 (PBCV-1, genus Chlorovirus, family Phycodnaviridae) at the level of DNA replication are (i) the host cell has a DNA G+C content of 66%, while the virus is 40%; and (ii) the initial quantity of DNA in the haploid host cell is approximately 50 fg, yet the virus will make approximately 350 fg of DNA within hours of infection to produce approximately 1000 virions per cell. Thus, the quality and quantity of …

Outbreak Of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease In Captive Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus), Emma H. Torii, Arno Wünschmann, Mia Kim Torchetti, Leo Koster, Albert Van Geelen, Randy Atchison, Anne Rivas

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In September 2020, an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease occurred in captive reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and was associated with neurological signs and mortality. Four reindeer died or were euthanized after acute illness over a 12-day period. Affected reindeer displayed abnormal behavior, neurologic signs, lethargy, and/or lameness. The most consistent gross finding was dark red streaks throughout the adrenal gland cortices (4/4). One animal had acute hemorrhage involving the subcutis and skeletal muscles over the ventrolateral body wall and back, and abomasal serosa. Histologically, the most common lesions were adrenal gland cortical hemorrhage (4/4) with necrosis (3/4) and lymphoplasmacytic meningoencephalitis with …

Insectdisease: Programmatic Access To The Ecological Database Of The World’S Insect Pathogens, Tad Dallas, Colin J. Carlson, Patrick R. Stephens, Sadie J. Ryan, David W. Onstad

Faculty Publications

Curated databases of species interactions are instrumental to exploring and understanding the spatial distribution of species and their biotic interactions. In the process of conducting such projects, data development and curation efforts may give rise to a data product with utility beyond the scope of the original work, but which becomes inaccessible over time. Data describing insect host–pathogen interactions are fairly rare, and should thus be preserved and curated with appropriate metadata. Here, we introduce the insectDisease R package, a mechanism for curating, updating and distributing data from the Ecological Database of the World's Insect Pathogens, a database of insect …

Vircy-Seq : A Protocol For Characterizing Viral Activity, Tyler James Dion

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The main purpose of pharmaceutical production is to produce safe effective medicine for patient use. In an effort to ensure patient safety constant surveillance for viruses takes place. The detection of a viral nucleic acid in a pharmaceutical production setting results in investigations to assess its infectious potential. This is an intensive, expensive process that entails many tests such as the observation of hemadsorption, cytopathic effects (CPE), and more. These tests are typically specific and only capture certain viruses, as factors like CPE can only be observed in some viral species. A new investigational method that is effective on all …

Sequence-Based Bioinformatics Approaches To Predict Virus-Host Relationships In Archaea And Eukaryotes, Yingshan Li

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Viral metagenomics is independent of lab culturing and capable of investigating viromes of virtually any given environmental niches. While numerous sequences of viral genomes have been assembled from metagenomic studies over the past years, the natural hosts for the majority of these viral contigs have not been determined. Different computational approaches have been developed to predict hosts of bacteria phages. Nevertheless, little progress has been made in the virus-host prediction, especially for viruses that infect eukaryotes and archaea. In this study, by analyzing all documented viruses with known eukaryotic and archaeal hosts, we assessed the predictive power of four computational …

(R1980) Effect Of Climate Change On Brain Tumor, Pardeep Kumar, Sarita Jha, Rajiv Aggarwal, Govind Kumar Jha

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, we introduce a new dynamical model addressing the variation in climate condition due the presence of microorganisms. We also introduce a new dynamical model of cancer growth which includes three interactive cell populations with drug free environment, namely tumor cells, healthy host cells, and immune effector cells. In this, we considered the super growth of tumor cells. For the choice of certain parameters, both of the systems exhibit chaotic behavior. The aim of this work is to design the controller to control the chaos and to provide sufficient conditions which achieve synchronization of two non-identical systems, which …

Epigenetic Influences Of Mobile Genetic Elements On Ciliate Genome Architecture And Evolution, Caitlin M. Timmons, Shahed U.A. Shazib, Laura A. Katz

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are transient genetic material that can move either within a single organism's genome or between individuals or species. While historically considered “junk” DNA (i.e., deleterious or at best neutral), more recent studies reveal the potential adaptive advantages MGEs provide in lineages across the tree of life. Ciliates, a group of single-celled microbial eukaryotes characterized by nuclear dimorphism, exemplify how epigenetic influences from MGEs shape genome architecture and patterns of molecular evolution. Ciliate nuclear dimorphism may have evolved as a response to transposon invasion and ciliates have since co-opted transposons to carry out programmed DNA deletion. Another …

Neural Stem Cells: Age-Dependent Outcomes During Viral Infections In The Central Nervous System, Manisha N. Chandwani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Viral infections in the central nervous system (CNS) are associated with neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral deficits. The outcomes of viral infections can be driven by damage and death of neurons. Neural stem cells (NSCs) play key roles in neurodevelopment, repair, and physiological brain function. During a viral infection, NSC activity can disturbed by direct infection of NSCs by the virus or by anti-viral immune response. Here, we aimed to assess whether the anti-viral immune response can impact NSC activity during an immunocompetent response in the adult brain. We utilized a transgenic mouse model of Measles virus infection where only the CNS …

A Checklist Of Parasites Of Peromyscus Maniculatus In North America, John Ubelaker, Gábor R. Rácz

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

This document represents a summary of parasites, in the broadest sense of the term, reported from Peromyscus maniculatus from throughout its range in North America. The document provides data from work ranging from paleontological findings to relatively current reports of parasites and parasitism from P. maniculatus and covers viruses, bacteria sensu lato, protists, helminths, and ectoparasites.

Interdisciplinary Team Addresses Cotton Leafroll Dwarf Virus In Alabama, Kassie N. Conner, Edward Sikora, Jenny Koebernick, Marcio Zaccaron

The Journal of Extension

A multi-state and interdisciplinary team was formed to address the Extension and research needs of CLRDV, an emerging cotton disease with high potential impact for U.S. cotton production. In 2017, CLRDV was identified in AL and Auburn University immediately formed an interdisciplinary working group composed of plant breeders, plant pathologists, entomologists, and agronomists. Since then, scientists from ten other states have joined the CLRDV group. Thus, allowing research to be coordinated efficiently and best deploy limited resources to attend the stakeholder’s needs. The CLRDV group produces and shares new and relevant information with the scientific community and cotton producers alike.

An Investigation Of The Novel Use Of Bacteriophages To Diagnose And Treat Johne's Disease In Cattle, Max Kevane-Campbell

ORBioM (Open Research BioSciences Meeting)

Johne’s disease is a scourge to dairy farmers all over the world. It is an infectious disease that causes chronic inflammation and lesions along the inside of the small intestine of, primarily, ruminant animals (i.e., cattle and sheep). It is an incurable disease and urgently requires new and radical intervention strategies. Apart from careful on-site farm management practices, little can be offered to farmers to reduce the risk of infection, and nothing short of livestock culling is effective once an animal becomes infected. Currently, there are no vaccines licensed in Ireland or antibiotic treatment strategies available for Johne’s disease. This …

Where To Invest Project Efforts For Greater Benefit: A Framework Formanagement Performance Mapping With Examples For Potato Seed Health, C. E. Buddenhagen, Y. Xing, J. L. Andrade-Piedra, G. A. Forbes, P. Kromann, I. Navarrete, S. Thomas-Sharma, Robin A. Choudhury, K. F. Andersen Onofre, E. Schulte-Geldermann

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Policymakers and donors often need to identify the locations where technologies are most likely to have important effects, to increase the benefits from agricultural development or extension efforts. Higher-quality information may help to target the high-benefit locations, but often actions are needed with limited information. The value of information (VOI) in this context is formalized by evaluating the results of decision making guided by a set of specific information compared with the results of acting without considering that information. We present a framework for management performance mapping that includes evaluating the VOI for decision making about geographic priorities in regional …

Contributions Of Vibrational Spectroscopy To Virology: A Review, Iqra Chaudhary, Naomi Jackson, Denise Denning, Luke O'Neill, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Vibrational spectroscopic techniques, both infrared absorption and Raman scattering, are high precision, label free analytical techniques which have found applications in fields as diverse as analytical chemistry, pharmacology, forensics and archeometrics and, in recent times, have attracted increasing attention for biomedical applications. As analytical techniques, they have been applied to the characterisation of viruses as early as the 1970s, and, in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, have been explored in response to the World Health Organisation as novel methodologies to aid in the global efforts to implement and improve rapid screening of viral infection. This review …

Mutant Viruses From Hell: Comparing The Capsid Structure Of Vp1 Mutants To The Wild-Type, Jenni Tran, Thejanee Liyanaarachchi, Ignacio De La Higuera, Jono Abshier, Ken Stedman

Student Research Symposium

Viruses can be defined as genetic material tightly packed in a protein coat called the capsid. The spindle-shaped fuselloviruses are found worldwide in hot springs at over 80°C and below pH 4. Sulfolobus spindle-shaped virus 1 (SSV1) is a fusellovirus known to infect the archaea, Saccharolobus solfataricus. This research will provide further insights into the survival of macromolecules, particularly proteins, that are present in extreme environments. To study the interaction of proteins within these extreme environments, we are studying the capsid structure of SSV1. The capsid of SSV1 is composed of two main proteins, VP1 (major) and VP3 (minor). There …

Diversity Of Bacteriophage In Burkholderia Species, Abigail Price

Honors Projects

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria and offer the potential of a therapeutic alternative to chronic infections that do not respond to antibiotic-based therapies. B. vietnamiensis is one of a number of Burkholderia species involved with chronic drug resistant infections in the lungs of individuals with compromised respiratory systems, as found in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and, most especially, are of particular significance in patients with cystic fibrosis. The diversity of the Burkholderia species is explored by using online databases and looking at bacteriophage or phage-encoding viruses found in B. vietnamiensis. The open reading frames …

Space Systems: Emerging Technologies And Operations, Randall K. Nichols, Candice M. Carter, John-Paul Hood, Mark J. Jackson, Siny M. J. Joseph, Haley Larson, Wayne D. Lonstein, Randall Mai, Robert Mccreight, Hans C. Mumm, Michael L. Oetken, Michael J. Pritchard, Julie J. H. C. Ryan, Suzanne E. Sincavage, William Slofer

NPP eBooks

SPACE SYSTEMS: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND OPERATIONS is our seventh textbook in a series covering the world of UASs / CUAS/ UUVs. Other textbooks in our series are Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD); Disruptive Technologies with applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries; Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land; Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations; Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA's Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition. …

Expression Of Sv40 T Antigen Is Not Sufficient To Alter Tead-1 Isoform Production In Immortalized Human Diploid Fibroblasts, Alec Delgado

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

SV40 T-ag is capable of transforming rodent cells in culture and inducing tumor formation in animal models through interactions with cellular proteins. The TEAD-1/TEF-1 transcription factor, discovered complexed with T-ag, activates early viral gene expression and is essential for the YAP/TAZ proliferation and anti-apoptosis pathway. Studies in rat cells showed expression of T-ag induced an alternatively spliced isoform of TEAD1; thus, this study investigated if this isoform existed in human cells and what role it may play in transformation. Using T-ag-transformed HDFs, TEAD1 was assessed by RT-PCR and immunoblot. Preliminary RT-PCR data showed 2 of 3 primer sets exhibited a …

D-Dimer Testing In Covid-19: From Basics To Clinical Application, Bushra Moiz

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Virus-Induced Myocarditis In Human Heart Tissue Samples, Gabriel Galeotos

Honors Theses

The heart is a major organ whose function is to transport nutrients and waste throughout the body. This organ can become infected by pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, or parasites. Infection of the middle heart layer, or myocardium, is often caused by a viral agent. This disease has three stages: viral infiltration, adaptive immune system activation, and finally either viral clearance or cardiac cell remodeling. During this process the immune system will begin to secrete cytokines, which are signaling molecules that alert other members of the immune pathways, and also participate in cardiac remodeling. Evaluating the correlation between the cytokine …

Characterization Of The Respiratory Syncytial Virus (Rsv) Attachment Protein Mucin Domains, Molly Kathleen Roe

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is currently a leading cause of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI). Despite contributing to a significant mortality rate in young children and immunocompromised populations, it still lacks a vaccine. Live-attenuated vaccines are the preferred vaccination model for RSV, but achieving attenuation, immunogenicity, and stability can be difficult. Previous studies have indicated that deletion of the RSV G protein attenuates viral replication, but the role of the protein’s mucin domains has not been fully explored. We generate two new RSV strains here with varying G protein deletions: A2-line19F-G155 with deletion of the G-protein mucin domains, and A2- …