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Full-Text Articles in Biology

Cross-Pollination: Building A Co-Taught Course To Examine Art And Sex Through The Lens Of Botany, Christopher T. Martine, Diamanda A. Zizis, Anna K. Kell May 2024

Cross-Pollination: Building A Co-Taught Course To Examine Art And Sex Through The Lens Of Botany, Christopher T. Martine, Diamanda A. Zizis, Anna K. Kell

Faculty Journal Articles

Driven by overlapping interests in plants, art, and diversity in sex expression, Anna Kell (Department of Art and Art History) and Chris Martine (Department of Biology) developed a course that integrates the perspectives of a visual artist and a botanist. Art & Sex Through the Lens of Botany seeks to impart the importance of making connections across disciplines and the value of visual literacy across academic lines. The course introduces foundational concepts in each field and encourages students to integrate and explore these different systems of knowledge and their intersections. In addition to developing fluencies related to both general botany …


Teaching Evolutionary Principles With Ai Image Generators, Jacqueline Garnett Apr 2024

Teaching Evolutionary Principles With Ai Image Generators, Jacqueline Garnett

Generative AI Teaching Activities

The purpose of this assignment is for students to practice constructing phylogenies using the principle of parsimony. In this activity, students will use an AI Image Generator to create a grid of images of the same organism and identify a series of traits that vary to build a possible phylogenetic tree.


A Case Of Incipient Budding Speciation In The California Floristic Province, Infraspecific Divergence In Abronia Villosa, Eli J. Allen Jan 2024

A Case Of Incipient Budding Speciation In The California Floristic Province, Infraspecific Divergence In Abronia Villosa, Eli J. Allen

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Physical barriers to gene flow are the traditional evidence for species divergence. Conversely, there has been increasing acknowledgment of speciation in the face of gene flow as an evolutionary process. Budding speciation involves peripheral populations adapting to local ecological conditions, thereby budding off from a widespread progenitor species. Budding speciation is distinguished by ecological divergence and is generally evidenced by asymmetrical range size and nested phylogenetic relationships of sister species. The narrow endemic Abronia villosa var. aurita is adapted to montane sandy washes adjacent to its widespread sister variety, the desert dwelling var. villosa. Here, I tested the hypothesis …


Lizard Communities In A Shifting Landscape: The Current State Of Insectivorous Lizard Communities In The Jornada Basin Between Grassland, Mesquite Dune, And Creosote Bush Habitats In A Semi-Arid Landscape Undergoing Shrubification, Julie Marie Schlichte Dec 2023

Lizard Communities In A Shifting Landscape: The Current State Of Insectivorous Lizard Communities In The Jornada Basin Between Grassland, Mesquite Dune, And Creosote Bush Habitats In A Semi-Arid Landscape Undergoing Shrubification, Julie Marie Schlichte

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Lizard communities in arid lands can act as model systems of how diversity and abundance are impacted in the face of ongoing climate variability and change, as they are sensitive to shifts in precipitation, temperature, and changing vegetation structure. The main research question we hope to answer is how the community composition of lizards varies between dominant vegetation types (Mesquite dunes, grasslands, and Creosote Bush flats). Nine sites (3 of each dominant vegetation type) with 16 pitfall traps each (n = 144) were surveyed from June 2016 -- June 2017. 12 lizard species were captured, consisting of 923 total captures …


Activity Patterns Of Whiptail Lizards (Aspidoscelis) Found In The Northern Chihuahuan Desert, Guillermo Alvarez Dec 2023

Activity Patterns Of Whiptail Lizards (Aspidoscelis) Found In The Northern Chihuahuan Desert, Guillermo Alvarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Traditional lizard pitfall traps were modified to allow organisms to escape, while collecting valuable ecological data. Modified camera traps were capable of detecting the same species as traditional traps in a semi-arid environment, without posing the associated mortality risks. Pitfall-camera traps were used to sample the activity of the Side-blotched Lizard (Uta stansburiana) and the Southwestern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus cowlesi) in an urban wetland during four continuous years. Evaluations on activity pattern and the activity overlap between the two species revealed extensive overlap, with minor but significant seasonal shifts mediating coexistence. Traps were also effective at detecting other reptiles, invertebrates, …


Breaking Virulent: The Coincidental Evolution Of Virulence Factors In Bacteria., Rhiannon Emmanuelle Cecil Dec 2023

Breaking Virulent: The Coincidental Evolution Of Virulence Factors In Bacteria., Rhiannon Emmanuelle Cecil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how innocuous organisms can evolve to be pathogenic to humans is of increasing global concern. Further, understanding how existing pathogens may evolved to be more virulent is also vital to our ability to provide healthcare to people afflicted with diseases that promote chronic bacterial infections, such as cystic fibrosis. With the rise of antibiotic resistance in both bacteria and fungi it is paramount that new therapeutics are identified. Understanding what mutations occur that result in increased virulence in microbes can potentially provide new targets for antimicrobial drugs to combat antibiotic resistance. The Coincidental Evolution Hypothesis is a fundamental hypothesis …


Resolving The Paradox Of Polyploidy: Underexplored Facets Of Polyploid Plants, Benjamin Gerstner Aug 2023

Resolving The Paradox Of Polyploidy: Underexplored Facets Of Polyploid Plants, Benjamin Gerstner

Biology ETDs

Polyploidy, or whole genome duplication, is a common phenomenon in plants, but the establishment and persistence of mixed-ploidy populations remains a paradox. This dissertation explores factors that contribute to the persistence and establishment of mixed-ploidy populations in nature. The first chapter investigates the role of unreduced gametes in neopolyploid establishment and finds that variability in their formation rate can have a significant impact on polyploid establishment and persistence. The second chapter searches for evidence of soil microbes exhibiting ploidy-specificity, a pre-condition for microbe-mediated niche differentiation, a possible stabilizing mechanism contributing to ploidy coexistence. Finally, the third chapter tests for microbe-mediated …


The Importance Of Soil Carbon In Large-Scale Shrub Removal Practices In The Chihuahuan Desert, Kathleen Schaeffer Aug 2023

The Importance Of Soil Carbon In Large-Scale Shrub Removal Practices In The Chihuahuan Desert, Kathleen Schaeffer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Shrub encroachment is a worldwide phenomenon that affects multiple biomes at different ecological and anthropogenic levels. In dryland ecosystems, shrub encroachment is a noted concern amongst land managers, as it can lead to a loss of soil resources and biodiversity. To mitigate the negative effects of shrub encroachment in Drylands, land managers can implement large-scale shrub removal practices. These land restoration practices can shift landscapes to novel ecosystems, where resulting plant communities can vary following treatments. Grass recovery or increasing herbaceous cover is often a primary goal of these treatments, however predicting which sites may show higher grass responses to …


Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of Genus Physaria In North America, Binoshi Hettihewa Jul 2023

Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of Genus Physaria In North America, Binoshi Hettihewa

Theses

Physaria is a genus of ~108 species belonging to family Brassicaceae that is predominantly distributed in Western North America, but one species occurs in Arctic Russia and Northern Canada and several species occur in South America. Regardless of the vast number of species in the genus, the genus lacks a well-resolved phylogeny representing many taxa, partially because phylogeny reconstruction is complicated by the fact that many species of Physaria vary in chromosome numbers and ploidy levels. In chapter 1, we review how polyploids are formed and become established and summarize what is known about variation in chromosome number and ploidy …


Phylogeographic History Of The Leaf-Eared Mouse, Phyllotis Xanthopygus Complex, Tabitha R. Mcfarland Jul 2023

Phylogeographic History Of The Leaf-Eared Mouse, Phyllotis Xanthopygus Complex, Tabitha R. Mcfarland

Biology ETDs

Museum collections provide essential biodiversity sampling needed to understand the species limits, phylogeny, and biogeographic history of mammals, all key features of the foundation for comparative analyses in ecology and evolution. We add to this framework a diverse assemblage of species of leaf-eared mice (genus Phyllotis) in South America and then focus on the Phyllotis xanthopygus complex by combining available mitochondrial sequence (cytochrome b; cytb) data (351 GenBank samples) with 52 newly sequenced museum samples from the northern extent of this complex’s range (51 from Bolivia and 1 from northern Chile) to reconstruct evolutionary relationships using maximum …


Morphological Trait Evolution In Solanum (Solanaceae): Evolutionary Lability Of Key Taxonomic Characters, Rebecca Hilgenhof, Edeline Gagnon, Sandra Knapp, Xavier Aubriot, Eric Tepe, Lynn Bohs, Leandro Giacomin, Yuri Gouvea, Andres Orejuela, Christopher T. Martine, Clara Ines Orozco, Iris E. Peralta, Tina Sarkinen Jul 2023

Morphological Trait Evolution In Solanum (Solanaceae): Evolutionary Lability Of Key Taxonomic Characters, Rebecca Hilgenhof, Edeline Gagnon, Sandra Knapp, Xavier Aubriot, Eric Tepe, Lynn Bohs, Leandro Giacomin, Yuri Gouvea, Andres Orejuela, Christopher T. Martine, Clara Ines Orozco, Iris E. Peralta, Tina Sarkinen

Faculty Journal Articles

Solanum is one of the world's largest and economically most important plant genera, including 1245 currently accepted species and several major and minor crops (e.g., tomato, potato, brinjal eggplant, scarlet eggplant, Gboma eggplant, lulo, and pepino). Here we provide an overview of the evolution of 25 key morphological traits for the major and minor clades of this giant genus based on stochastic mapping using a well-sampled recently published phylogeny of Solanum. The most evolutionarily labile traits (showing >100 transitions across the genus) relate to plant structure (growth form and sympodial unit structure), herbivore defence (glandular trichomes), pollination (corolla shape …


Development Of A 16s Reference Library For Edna Metabarcoding The Freshwater Fishes Of Western Ecuador., Hannah M. Willis, Olivia G. Schweikart, Windsor E. Aguirre Jun 2023

Development Of A 16s Reference Library For Edna Metabarcoding The Freshwater Fishes Of Western Ecuador., Hannah M. Willis, Olivia G. Schweikart, Windsor E. Aguirre

DePaul Discoveries

This project examines the use of the 16S locus to amplify neotropical freshwater fishes native to Western Ecuador in a newly created 16S reference library for DNA barcoding and eDNA metabarcoding applications. Among the orders Characiformes, Siluriformes, Cichliformes, Gobiiformes, Cryprinodontiformes, Gymnotiformes, and Perciformes, a compendium of 105 specimens were sequenced, with 43 representing new 16S sequences previously unavailable on Genbank.


Fluidity And Inconstancy: Australian Bush Tomatoes As An Exemplar Of Non-Normative Sex Expression, Christopher T. Martine Jun 2023

Fluidity And Inconstancy: Australian Bush Tomatoes As An Exemplar Of Non-Normative Sex Expression, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

Solanum, a genus of ~1500 global species, is one of the more interesting plant groups in which to study reproductive biology and ecology. Overwhelmingly, species in this group express full cosexuality, where individual plants have flowers containing both fully-functioning “male” (staminate) and “female” (carpellate) organs. However, there have been multiple and widespread evolutionary transitions within the genus to non-normative variations on this ancestral condition. Australian bush tomatoes (ca. 40 species) are especially diverse in this regard, with uncommon variation and combinations of unisexuality and cosexuality -- including, most notably, two sexual systems known as dioecy (unisexual male or female …


Ethical Issues And Standards Of Responsible Research Conduct And Monitoring In An Adventist Institution Of Higher Learning - The Babcock Experience, Kayode O. Ogunwenmo, Godswill N. Anyasor, Grace O. Tayo May 2023

Ethical Issues And Standards Of Responsible Research Conduct And Monitoring In An Adventist Institution Of Higher Learning - The Babcock Experience, Kayode O. Ogunwenmo, Godswill N. Anyasor, Grace O. Tayo

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Ethical issues and standards of responsible research conduct involving human participants are important considerations in any institution of higher learning and in particular Adventist institutions. Research conduct and ethics are reviewed and approved before they begin by the Babcock University Health Research Ethics Committee (BUHREC)


Comparative Energetics Of Mammalian Thermoregulatory Physiology, Ana M. Breit May 2023

Comparative Energetics Of Mammalian Thermoregulatory Physiology, Ana M. Breit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Endothermy allows species to decouple body temperature from environmental
temperatures but does not equate to endothermic species maintaining those constant temperatures. Instead, heterothermy fluctuating body temperatures, both in and outside of torpor is common and allows endotherms to expand the limits of thermoneutrality. Thermolability is likely to be more common in the tropics and subtropics, where species live within or above their thermoneutral zone. My dissertation research focused on the heterothermic-homeothermic continuum, specifically quantifying where on the continuum different species fall at certain times and why those species have evolved to be at those points. I quantified the thermal profile …


Past And Present Patterns Of Neutral And Adaptive Genetic Diversity In Wild Mandrills (Mandrillus Sphinx), Anna Weber May 2023

Past And Present Patterns Of Neutral And Adaptive Genetic Diversity In Wild Mandrills (Mandrillus Sphinx), Anna Weber

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Although primates have fascinated researchers and the public alike for generations, one species that has remained enigmatic is the mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx), a large Cercopithecine monkey endemic to Central Africa. Mandrills are currently in decline due to bushmeat hunting, urbanization, and habitat loss. Neutral and adaptive genetic diversity are important tools for understanding evolutionary history and future viability, since diversity influences a species’ ability to adapt to a changing environment. However, thus far, minimal genetic information has been available for wild mandrills. Because of the dense vegetation in their tropical forest habitat, studying wild mandrills has proven to …


Vibroacoustic Response Of The Tympanic Membrane To Hyoid-Borne Sound Generated During Echolocation In Bats, Chelsie Snipes May 2023

Vibroacoustic Response Of The Tympanic Membrane To Hyoid-Borne Sound Generated During Echolocation In Bats, Chelsie Snipes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hyoid apparatus in laryngeally echolocating bats forms a mechanical connection between the larynx and auditory bullae and has been hypothesized to transfer the outgoing echolocation call to the middle ear during echolocation call emission. We used µCT data to build models of the hyoid apparatus and middle ear from six species of bats and used finite element modeling (FEM) to measure the vibroacoustic response of the tympanic membrane due to hyoid-borne sound generated during echolocation. We found that hyoid-borne sound in all six species stimulated the eardrum within a range likely heard by bats. Although there were minor differences …


Notes On Lung Development In South African Ghost Frogs (Anura: Heleophrynidae), Jackson R. Phillips, Jens Reissig, Gary Kyle Nicolau Apr 2023

Notes On Lung Development In South African Ghost Frogs (Anura: Heleophrynidae), Jackson R. Phillips, Jens Reissig, Gary Kyle Nicolau

Biology Student Research

Lungs are a prototypical trait of most tetrapods, but some amphibians have become secondarily lungless over evolutionary time. Anuran (frog) tadpoles offer an opportunity to examine lung loss from an evolutionary perspective, because there are many independent instances where lungs are not inflated until adulthood, and so are functionally lost. Lung loss is typically associated with living in fast-flowing streams, and so we examined larval lung development in the stream specialist family Heleophrynidae. We find that one genus, Hadromophryne Van Dijk, 2008, has large lungs as tadpole, while the other genus, Heleophryne Sclater, 1898, has much smaller, stunted lung buds. …


Biomechanics Of Mantis Prey Capture, Danielle S. Taylor Jan 2023

Biomechanics Of Mantis Prey Capture, Danielle S. Taylor

Honors Theses

Mantis species have a variety of different morphologies, so do the extreme forms of mantis limbs trade prey catching capability for camouflage? We hypothesize that some extreme forms of mantis limbs that are associated with cryptic species may be associated with a tradeoff of the capability of those limbs. Previous research has developed 2D morphologies of several hundred species of mantises. We are creating a 3D morphology by using micro dissection, micro CT imaging to construct our 3D biomechanical model. We found the attachment points of the ligaments and muscles from a Tenodera forearm and have constructed a 2D biomechanical …


A Cladoxylopsid With Complex Vascular Architecture From The Early Devonian Battery Point Formation (Québec, Canada), Jessica Chu Jan 2023

A Cladoxylopsid With Complex Vascular Architecture From The Early Devonian Battery Point Formation (Québec, Canada), Jessica Chu

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Cladoxylopsids are seed-free plants that formed the world’s earliest forests and gave rise to horsetails (sphenopsids), but their evolutionary origins are poorly understood. Here, I describe a new Early Devonian cladoxylopsid from the Emsian (400-395 Ma) Battery Point Formation (Québec, Canada). The structural features of this plant indicate taxonomic affinity to cladoxylalean cladoxylopsids and its phylogenetic position supports placement in genus Cladoxylon (the proposed name, Cladoxylon kespekianum sp. nov., to be formalized by peer-reviewed publication). Specimens of this plant are permineralized in calcium carbonate and were studied using the acetate peel technique with light and electron microscopy. Cladoxylon kespekianum is …


Proposing An Rna Interference (Rnai)-Based Treatment For Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Hiv) By Analyzing The Post-Transcriptional Gene Targeting Of Sars-Cov-2, Hepatitis C Virus, And A549 Lung Cancer Cells, Arjun Jagdeesh Jan 2023

Proposing An Rna Interference (Rnai)-Based Treatment For Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Hiv) By Analyzing The Post-Transcriptional Gene Targeting Of Sars-Cov-2, Hepatitis C Virus, And A549 Lung Cancer Cells, Arjun Jagdeesh

Undergraduate Research Posters

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that infects CD4+ T cell lymphocytes in humans, leading to the development of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) if left untreated. While current treatment methods, including antiretroviral combination treatments, effectively limit HIV replication, HIV can evade these treatments due to its high mutation rate. Long-term antiretroviral treatment can also be toxic to patients, meaning patients would benefit from a new mechanism of HIV treatment. RNA interference (RNAi) is an antiviral pathway found in mammals, plants, and insects that involves a small-interfering RNA that is incorporated into a protein complex called the RNA-induced Silencing Complex …


Nuclear Phylogeny And Insights Into Whole-Genome Duplications And Reproductive Development Of Solanaceae Plants, Jie Wang, Weibin Xu, Junwen Zhai, Yi Hu, Jing Guo, Caifei Zhang, Yiyong Zhao, Lin Zhang, Christopher T. Martine, Hong Ma, Chien-Hsun Huang Jan 2023

Nuclear Phylogeny And Insights Into Whole-Genome Duplications And Reproductive Development Of Solanaceae Plants, Jie Wang, Weibin Xu, Junwen Zhai, Yi Hu, Jing Guo, Caifei Zhang, Yiyong Zhao, Lin Zhang, Christopher T. Martine, Hong Ma, Chien-Hsun Huang

Faculty Journal Articles

Solanaceae, the nightshade family, have ∼2700 species, including the important crops potato and tomato, ornamentals, and medicinal plants. Several sequenced Solanaceae genomes show evidence for whole-genome duplication (WGD), providing an excellent opportunity to investigate WGD and its impacts. Here, we generated 93 transcriptomes/genomes and combined them with 87 public datasets, for a total of 180 Solanaceae species representing all four subfamilies and 14 of 15 tribes. Nearly 1700 nuclear genes from these transcriptomic/genomic datasets were used to reconstruct a highly resolved Solanaceae phylogenetic tree with six major clades. The Solanaceae tree supports four previously recognized subfamilies (Goetzeioideae, Cestroideae, Nicotianoideae, …


Inferring Adaptation In Social Microbes From Experimental Evolution Under Relaxed Selection, Tyler John Larsen Dec 2022

Inferring Adaptation In Social Microbes From Experimental Evolution Under Relaxed Selection, Tyler John Larsen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microbes exist against a backdrop of other organisms, and the interactions between microbes have major consequences on their traits, their evolution, and their impact on the world. Microbial interactions and the adaptations that enable them are extremely diverse – they can unlock abilities beyond the reach of individual cells or lead to a population’s destruction, they can be temporary or permanent, they can be between genetically identical cells or different species entirely. The first chapter of this dissertation reviews microbial interactions and the related concept of the evolution of conflict and cooperation.To be certain a trait is an adaptation at …


Insect Availability And Parental Care Behavior In A Common Bird, Cole Bourque Dec 2022

Insect Availability And Parental Care Behavior In A Common Bird, Cole Bourque

Symposium of Student Scholars

Populations of aerially insectivorous birds are declining throughout North America. Urbanization may indirectly contribute to this decline through its negative effects on populations of insects, an important food source in insectivores' diets, where low insect availability may be especially challenging for birds during breeding. How fluctuations in insect populations impact various species at higher trophic levels is an important area of current study for future conservation biology. Here, we examine whether nestling provisioning, brooding and guarding behaviors in a breeding bird—the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)—may be altered depending on the relative insect availability in the environment. We found …


Caribbean Reef-Building Coral-Symbiodiniaceae Network: Identifying Symbioses Critical For System Stability In A Changing Climate, Shaman Patel Dec 2022

Caribbean Reef-Building Coral-Symbiodiniaceae Network: Identifying Symbioses Critical For System Stability In A Changing Climate, Shaman Patel

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Increasing global ocean temperatures and frequency of marine heatwaves pose dire consequences for coral reefs. High temperatures often lead to disruptions in coral symbiosis resulting in coral bleaching, increasing the mortality of corals. However, corals can potentially avoid bleaching peril by associating with thermally tolerant symbionts. Here we provide a tool for understanding symbiosis network stability of Caribbean reef-building corals. We created a network of Caribbean hermatypic corals and their associated Symbiodiniaceae phylotypes. A bleaching model was applied to this network to test for resilience and robustness (R50) to thermal stress. It was also layered with trait data for coral …


Sphenoidal Sinuses And Spherical Harmonics: Variation And Covariation Of The Most Morphologically Diverse And Least Understood Paranasal Sinus, Katharine Grace Josephine Ryan Dec 2022

Sphenoidal Sinuses And Spherical Harmonics: Variation And Covariation Of The Most Morphologically Diverse And Least Understood Paranasal Sinus, Katharine Grace Josephine Ryan

Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the shape variation of the human sphenoidal sinus is important to several areas of research. This includes clinical investigation (sinus pathology and safe endoscopic endonasal surgical practice) and paranasal sinus evolution (for which there is still no consensus). Yet, the sphenoidal sinus has high morphological variation, prohibiting its quantification through traditional geometric morphometric landmarking methods. The sphenoid body, and thus also the sinus contained within, is located directly at the developmental center of the basicranium in humans, where the three cranial fossae meet at the midline, and adjacent to the three synchondroses which are the sites of cranial base …


Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 24. Wallace At 200: Potential Subjects For Student Theses, Charles H. Smith Dec 2022

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 24. Wallace At 200: Potential Subjects For Student Theses, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The bicentennial of Alfred Russel Wallace’s birth in 2023 will likely produce a wide array of reviews of his life and work; here, we pause for a short look at some Wallace-related questions that might be adapted for student theses and dissertations. Some of the subjects treated fall in with established lines of research, while others are suggested by other Wallace interests or activities that have not been much explored.


Internal Vertebral Morphology Of Bony Fishes Matches The Mechanical Demands Of Different Environments, Dana Baxter, Karly E. Cohen, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Eric D. Tytell Nov 2022

Internal Vertebral Morphology Of Bony Fishes Matches The Mechanical Demands Of Different Environments, Dana Baxter, Karly E. Cohen, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Eric D. Tytell

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Fishes have repeatedly evolved characteristic body shapes depending on how close they live to the substrate. Pelagic fishes live in open water and typically have narrow, streamlined body shapes; benthic and demersal fishes live close to the substrate; and demersal fishes often have deeper bodies. These shape differences are often associated with behavioral differences: pelagic fishes swim nearly constantly, demersal fishes tend to maneuver near the substrate, and benthic fishes often lie in wait on the substrate. We hypothesized that these morphological and behavioral differences would be reflected in the mechanical properties of the body, and specifically in vertebral column …


Ecology And Evolution Of Social Information Use, Clare T. M. Doherty Nov 2022

Ecology And Evolution Of Social Information Use, Clare T. M. Doherty

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Sociality is a strategy many animals employ to cope with their environments, enabling them to survive and reproduce more successfully than would otherwise be possible. When navigating their environments and making decisions, social individuals often use information provided by conspecifics (in the form of social cues and signals), thereby increasing the scope and reliability of the information they can gather. However, social information use may be influenced by many factors, including key differences in context across the physical and social environment. My thesis asks and answers a series of questions regarding the trade-offs in social information use across different contexts, …


Chemosensory Receptors In Berghia Stephanieae: Bioinformatics And Localization, Kelsi L. Watkins Oct 2022

Chemosensory Receptors In Berghia Stephanieae: Bioinformatics And Localization, Kelsi L. Watkins

Masters Theses

Chemosensation is achieved through the binding of chemical signals to chemoreceptor proteins embedded in the membranes of sensory neurons. The molecular identity of these receptors, as well as the downstream processing of chemosensory signals, has been well studied in arthropods and vertebrates. However, very little is known about molluscan chemosensation. The identity of chemoreceptor proteins in the nudibranch mollusc Berghia stephanieae are unknown. Data from other protostome and molluscan studies suggest Berghia may use ionotropic receptors for some forms of chemoreception. This study used a bioinformatics approach to identify potential chemosensory ionotropic receptors in the transcriptome of Berghia. A …