Biology Commons^™

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus Amphibius) Aggressive Behaviors In The Retima Hippo Pool, Orangi River, Tanzania, Lydia Hoffman, Connor Veldman

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibius) are known to forage on land during the night and spend the daytime in shallow pools to thermoregulate and to protect their skin from UV radiation. Daily use of pools may lead to competition for space and facilitate aggressive interactions between hippopotamuses. In this study, we looked at the difference in occurrence of aggressive behavior in the morning and evening hours between hippopotamuses (hippos). Our hypothesis was that hippos will be more aggressive at different times of the day, and we predicted that the higher aggressive activity will be in the morning hours, as hippos …

The Effect Of Light Availability On Planktonic Communities Under The Ice In Stumpf Lake, Samantha Schug

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Ice cover is a part of the yearly cycle in bodies of water that are exposed to temperatures below the freezing point. Though the body of water is completely covered, many communities under the ice are still present and active during this time. I hypothesized that as the area cleared of snow increased, the increased light availability under the ice will cause a decrease in zooplankton abundance, as they avoid light and increase the chlorophyll concentration. Three different light availabilities were imposed on the ice by clearing three different sized areas of snow on the ice (0m, 1m and 2m). …

Genetic Disruption Of Metabolic Balance In Mouse Cerebellar Neurons Causes Deficits In The Postnatal Development Of Their Dendritic Tree And Mouse Motor Skills, Hayden Lens, Mary Boghos

Biology Student Scholarship

Hayden Lens ’23, Major: Biology

Mary Boghos ’23, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ileana Soto Reyes, Biology

The Npc1nmf164 mutant mouse is an animal model for the human disease Niemann-Pick type C (NPC). NPC is a lysosomal storage disease that is acquired by autosomal recessive inheritance. It is mostly caused by mutations in NPC1, a protein that transports cholesterol out of the lysosomes, therefore abnormal accumulation of cholesterol in lysosomes is a hallmark of NPC. Cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) are severely affected by NPC, in fact, PCs degenerate first and to a larger extent at childhood stages. Therefore, we have …

The Predation Resistance Of Squashed E. Coli, Kathryn Mulvey, Caroline Zielinski

Biology Student Scholarship

Kathryn Mulvey ’23, Major: Biology

Caroline Zielinski ’23, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor, Dr. Laura Williams, Biology

Predatory bacteria hunt and kill other bacteria, including pathogens that cause disease in humans, which makes them a promising alternative for treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Currently, it is unknown whether and how pathogens evolve resistance to predation. To investigate this, we are studying interactions between E. coli, which is a model organism for pathogenic bacteria, and predatory Bdellovibrio. When we co-cultured E. coli with a particular strain of predatory Bdellovibrio, we observed the emergence of predation-resistant E. coli that had reduced susceptibility to killing …

Diversity Of Bees In Trees On Urban College Campus, Aidan Castricone, Courtney Caccamo

Biology Student Scholarship

Aidan Castricone ’24, Major: Environmental Biology

Courtney Caccamo ’23 Majors: Environmental Biology and Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rachael Bonoan, Biology

It is well known that insect pollinator populations are declining and a lack of nutrients (i.e flowering plants) may be contributing to this decline. Insect pollinators forage for pollen and nectar, which provides proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, from flowering plants. Current research on pollinator foraging behavior focuses on pollinators that forage on the ground thus overlooking those that forage in trees. Trees such as Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) and crabapple (Malus sp.) bloom in early Spring, even before …

Circadian Rhythms Effect On Brain Metabolism In Mutant Flies, Olivia Kozub

Biology Student Scholarship

Olivia Kozub ’23
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Pamela Snodgrass, Biology

All organisms have an internal clock that drives physiological processes known as circadian rhythms. Being able to predict the environment and prepare for it, rather than simply react, is so critical to survival that this ability has been conserved from single cell organisms all the way to humans. These rhythms can be measured at the gene level, the protein level, the cellular level, the tissue level, all the way to oscillations in behavior. Measuring the metabolic activity of normal fly brains at different times of day will chart the …

Actualistic Testing Of The Influence Of Groundwater Chemistry On Degradation Of Collagen I In Bone, Paul V. Ullmann, Kristyn K. Voegele, Kenneth Lacovara

School of Earth & Environment Faculty Scholarship

Recent experiments have heightened our understanding of reactions which can stabilize biomolecules during early diagenesis, yet little remains known about how groundwater chemistry can aid or hinder molecular preservation within a bone through geologic time. To elucidate this issue, we conducted actualistic experiments of bone decay employing varied fluid compositions to simulate a suite of groundwaters. Modern domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) femora were placed in a matrix of compositionally- and texturally-mature, fluvially-deposited sand. To simulate groundwater flow, deionized water or solutions enriched in calcium carbonate, phosphate, or iron were percolated through separate trials for a period of 90 days. After …

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. …

Multi-Modal, Assistive, And Augmentive Neurological Based Therapy And Rehabilitation Device, Abigail Medeiros, Jonah Mcgowan

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

This project focuses on the design of a prototype, with the objective to create an assistive and augmentative game-based physical therapy device. This prototype was designed to aid in the physical therapy process by providing a specialized mode of assessment for clients with conditions that impact range of motion in the shoulder, such as a rotator cuff injury, traumatic brain injury, or a stroke. The device incorporates touch capacity textiles, washable microprocessors, and conductive thread to accurately assess range-of-motion through lateral shoulder abduction and other upper extremity movements that are severely diminished with these injuries. Angle measurements were calculated for …

Be Happy, But Not Too Happy: Taiwanese And American Childrearing Differences In Regulation Of Ideal Affect., Samantha Dietel

Biology Student Scholarship

Samantha Dietel ’23
Majors: Psychology and Elementary/Special Education
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Smaranda Lawrie, Psychology

Analyzing Behavior In Flies Modeling Frontotemporal Dementia, Colin Mcnulty, Julia Bonavolonta, Connor Barber

Biology Student Scholarship

Colin McNulty ’24, Major: Biology

Julia Bonavolonta ’24, Majors: Biology and Spanish

Connor Barber ’24, Major: Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marla Tipping, Biology

In this project, the goal is to be able to study the behavioral differences in Drosophila melanogaster who model the neurological disease frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Flies modeling FTD are placed into multiple different tubes and loaded into an activity monitor; the same is done with control flies who do not model FTD. Over time, this machine tracks sleep cycles, movement, eating habits, and other behaviors. These results are filed into a computer where they then are then …

Impact Of Nutrient Resorption On The Fitness And Growth In Iva Frutescens, Salt Marsh Elder, Juliane Bravo-Perez, Devon Gravel, Ryan Tainsh

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

Nutrient resorption, a nutrient conservation mechanism used by deciduous plants, was investigated in Iva frutescens, a woody salt marsh perennial. To address the impact of nutrient resorption on the fitness and growth in the model organism, a field and laboratory study was undertaken. During the Fall of 2022, seed material and growth measurements were collected from ten replicate Iva frutescens plants at four salt marsh habitats along the coast of Narragansett Bay, RI. Collected seed material was dried to constant mass, manually sorted to purify seed sample, and weighed. In addition, a subsample of 100 seeds from five individuals from …

From Deep Mutational Mapping Of Allosteric Protein Landscapes To Deep Learning Of Allostery And Hidden Allosteric Sites: Zooming In On “Allosteric Intersection” Of Biochemical And Big Data Approaches, Gennady M. Verkhivker, Mohammed Alshahrani, Grace Gupta, Sian Xiao, Peng Tao

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have driven the design of new expert systems and automated workflows that are able to model complex chemical and biological phenomena. In recent years, machine learning approaches have been developed and actively deployed to facilitate computational and experimental studies of protein dynamics and allosteric mechanisms. In this review, we discuss in detail new developments along two major directions of allosteric research through the lens of data-intensive biochemical approaches and AI-based computational methods. Despite considerable progress in applications of AI methods for protein structure and dynamics studies, the intersection between allosteric …

Soil Microbial Community Composition Of White Oak Mountain, Tennessee, Matthew Gano, Timothy D. Trott

Research in Biology

Abstract - Soil microbial communities are responsible for nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and have symbiotic and parasitic relationships with the plant community. However, little is known about the factors that determine the soil microbial community composition. In this study we examined how spring wildflower diversity and geographical factors influence the soil microbial community composition of the second growth oak hickory forests of White Oak Mountain in Southeast Tennessee. The characterization of the soil microbial community was completed with 16S/18S/ITS rDNA amplicon sequencing of total DNA extracted from soil samples that were normalized for each sample plot. Here we characterize …

Wastewater Surveillance Of Sars-Cov-2 Genomic Populations On A Country-Wide Scale Through Targeted Sequencing, Florencia Cancela, Natalia Ramos, Davida S. Smyth, Et Al.

All Faculty Scholarship

SARS-CoV-2 surveillance of viral populations in wastewater samples is recognized as a useful tool for monitoring epidemic waves and boosting health preparedness. Next generation sequencing of viral RNA isolated from wastewater is a convenient and cost-effective strategy to understand the molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 and provide insights on the population dynamics of viral variants at the community level. However, in low- and middle-income countries, isolated groups have performed wastewater monitoring and data has not been extensively shared in the scientific community. Here we report the results of monitoring the co-circulation and abundance of variants of concern (VOCs) of SARS-CoV-2 in …

Laurier Biology Departmental Seminars Poster Colouring Book (Vol 2), Tristan A.F. Long

Biology Faculty Publications

Welcome to Volume 2 of the Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Biology seminar series poster collection! When I was compiling a colouring book based on academic seminar posters last year, I had no idea how well it would be received. As of this writing, Volume 1 has been downloaded almost 1000 times (!): https://scholars.wlu.ca/biol_faculty/94/, and was featured in a great article by Cheyenne Bholla: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2022/04/27/laurier-biology-profs-science-posters-have-been-turned-into-a-downloadable-colouring-book.html.

So, I guess it’s time for a sequel, featuring some more of my favourite designs! This time round I’ve included several sets of posters – often drawn years apart – that are thematically …

Interactions Between Metabolism And Growth Can Determine The Co-Existence Of Staphylococcus Aureus And Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Camryn Pajon, Marla C. Fortoul, Gabriela Diaz-Tang, Estefania Marin Meneses, Ariane R. Kalifa, Elinor Sevy, Taniya Mariah, Brandon Toscan, Maili Marcelin, Daniella M. Hernandez, Melissa M. Marzouk, Allison J. Lopatkin, Omar T. Eldakar, Robert Smith

Biology Faculty Articles

Most bacteria exist and interact within polymicrobial communities. These interactions produce unique compounds, increase virulence and augment antibiotic resistance. One community associated with negative healthcare outcomes consists of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. When co-cultured, virulence factors secreted by P. aeruginosa reduce metabolism and growth in S. aureus. When grown in vitro, this allows P. aeruginosa to drive S. aureus toward extinction. However, when found in vivo, both species can co-exist. Previous work has noted that this may be due to altered gene expression or mutations. However, little is known about how the growth environment could influence the …

Volume 14, Ireland Seagle, Dalton C. Whitby, Cassandra Poole, Rachel Cannon, Heidi Parker-Combes, Devon G. Shifflett, Antonio Harvey

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Dr. Amorette Barber
• From the Editor: Dr. Larissa "Kat" Tracy
• From the Designers: Rachel English, Rachel Hanson
• Hungry Like the Wolf: The Wolf as Metaphor in Paramount Network’s Yellowstone: Ireland Seagle
• “Floating Cities”: Illustrating the Commercial and Conservation Conflict of Alaskan Cruise Ship Tourism: Dalton C. Whitby
• What Can You Do When Your Genes are the Enemy? Current Applications of Gene Manipulation and the Associated Ethical Considerations: Cassandra Poole
• La doble cara: un tema romántico en las obras de Larra y Hawthorne: Rachel Cannon
• Resolving a Conflict: How to …

Linking Science And Literacy Through Multimodal Text Sets: Student Perspectives, Heba Abdelnaby, William L. Romine, Delinda Van Garderen, Tracey Milarsky, Ankita Agarwal, Qingli Lei, Cassandra Smith, Amy Lannin, William Folk, Rachel Juergensen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

We present findings of a mixed methods study examining the perceptions of students’ (with and without disabilities) understanding and engagement with multimodal STEM text sets. Exit slip and survey data were used to identify areas for improvement in the development of the multimodal STEM text sets for middle school students. Data were collected from 434 middle school students, 86 of whom had a disability, from six teachers’ classrooms in Spring 2021. Significant differences in perceptions of understanding of argumentation were reported between students with and without disabilities. However, ratings of the lessons and the quality of learning, as well as …

The Impact Of Study Strategies On Knowledge Growth And Summative Exam Performance In The First Year Of Medical School, Markia Black, William L. Romine, Molly Simonis, Jeffrey L. Peters, Volker Bahn, Amber Todd

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Although the distinction between deep and surface processing strategies, their potential to differentially impact learning, and data supporting the superiority of deep processing strategies on summative exam scores are well supported by the literature, more work is needed to understand: (1) how medical students combine study strategies into learning practices, and (2) the effectiveness of these learning practices in facilitating knowledge gains as measured by standardized test scores.

Detection Of A Diverse Endophyte Assemblage Within Fungal Communities Associated With The Arundo Leaf Miner, Lasioptera Donacis (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), Marie-Claude Bon, John A. Goolsby, Guy Mercadier, Fatiha Guermache, Javid Kashef, Massimo Cristofaro, Ann T. Vacek, Alan Kirk

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The larvae of Lasioptera donacis Coutin feed on fungal communities lining galleries within the mesophyll of leaf sheaths of Arundo donax in an aggregative manner. It has been stated that L. donacis could have established a fundamental symbiotic relationship with one fungus, although the fungal composition of these communities remains unsettled. Using a culture-dependent approach and ITS sequencing, the present work characterizes and compares the fungal communities associated with L. donacis in Eurasia with the endophytes of A. donax in Texas where L. donacis is absent. The 65 cultivable isolates obtained from L. donacis fungal communities were sorted into 15 …

Acinetobacter Baumannii - The Perfect Pathogen, Jesse Guzik, Myrna Rezcallah, Alexcia Zeller, Kaite Mattson

Research and Scholarship Symposium Posters

Acinetobacter was discovered in 1911 by Martinus Beijerinck. Acinetobacter baumannii didn't receive its scientific name until 1986. A. baumannii is now commonly referred to as "Iraqibacter" due to a rise in infections among US military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. After the Iraq War began in 2003, the frequency of cases began to rise, especially among patients in intensive care units. Patients using ventilators, catheters, have postoperative wounds, stay in the hospital for an extended period of time, or are immunocompromised are at a considerably higher risk of getting A. baumannii. Because of its large number of virulence …

Examining Whether And How Instructional Coordination Occurs Within Introductory Undergraduate Stem Courses, Brian Couch, Luanna B. Prevost, Marilyne Stains, Blake Whitt, Ariel E. Marcy, Naneh Apkarian, Melissa H. Dancy, Charles Henderson, Estrella Johnson, Jeffrey R. Raker, Brandon J. Yik, Brittnee Earl, Susan E. Shadle, John Skvoretz, John P. Ziker

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Instructors’ interactions can foster knowledge sharing around teaching and the use of research-based instructional strategies (RBIS). Coordinated teaching presents an impetus for instructors’ interactions and creates opportunities for instructional improvement but also potentially limits an instructor’s autonomy. In this study, we sought to characterize the extent of coordination present in introductory undergraduate courses and to understand how departments and instructors implement and experience course coordination. We examined survey data from 3,641 chemistry, mathematics, and physics instructors at three institution types and conducted follow-up interviews with a subset of 24 survey respondents to determine what types of coordination existed, what factors …

Longitudinal Variations In Antibody Responses Against Sars-Cov-2 Spike Epitopes Upon Serial Vaccinations, Dicle Yalcin, Sydney J. Bennett, Jared Sheehan, Amber J. Trauth, For Yue Tso, John T. West, Michael E. Hagensee, Alistair J. Ramsay, Charles Wood

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) impacted healthcare, the workforce, and worldwide socioeconomics. Multi-dose mono- or bivalent mRNA vaccine regimens have shown high efficacy in protection against SARSCoV- 2 and its emerging variants with varying degrees of efficacy. Amino acid changes, primarily in the receptor-binding domain (RBD), result in selection for viral infectivity, disease severity, and immune evasion. Therefore, many studies have centered around neutralizing antibodies that target the RBD and their generation achieved through infection or vaccination. Here, we conducted a unique longitudinal study, analyzing the effects of a three-dose mRNA vaccine …

Development Of A Novel Method For Identifying Antibiotic Producing Microbes From The Soil, Sean Slayton

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria are strains of bacteria that are resistant to multiple types of antibiotics and pose a serious public health threat. Our research group has developed a novel way to rapidly screen soil bacteria isolates for antimicrobial chemical production in a clear and reproducible manner. We examined the effects of certain variables on our method including: 1) agar type on antimicrobial diffusion, 2) agar depth on antimicrobial diffusion, 3) age of the soil isolate on the amount of antimicrobial produced, and 4) soil isolate placement on the inhibition of bacterial growth. Our combined results led to the creation …

Modeling Olfactory Dysfunction In Parkinson’S Disease In Zebrafish, Nathaniel Vorhees, Samantha Groenwold

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Parkinson's Disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by dopaminergic neuronal loss and motor impairment, affects roughly 1 in 500 people. Interestingly, olfaction loss is prevalent in over 95% of those with PD. However, the underlying mechanisms of PD and olfactory dysfunction are not well understood. Zebrafish provide an ideal model to study neurodegenerative diseases and regenerative processes as they present neurogenic capability (i.e., generation of new neurons) and a high degree of neuroplasticity. We developed a model to study the association between dopaminergic loss and olfactory dysfunction in zebrafish. To do this, we used adult zebrafish of both sexes and …

Degeneration And Neurogenesis Following An Excitotoxic Focal Lesion To The Olfactory Bulb Of Zebrafish, Solange Fingleton, Alina Ciesielski

22nd Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2023)

Neurogenesis is the process of new neuron generation in the brain. Zebrafish have 16 different neurogenic sites, which allows for effective damage and lesion repair because of the ability to constitutively regenerate neurons. In zebrafish, the olfactory bulbs — part of the olfactory system – are highly regenerative and neurogenic. Our lab established a model of excitotoxic lesion (that targets glutamatergic neurons), and determined that the olfactory bulbs are structurally and functionally recovered. However, the processes of neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb following direct injury has not been studied. In this work, we use the same neurodegenerative model using an …

Decontamination And Annotation Of The Draft Genome Sequence Of The Oomycete Lagenidium Giganteum Arsef 373, William R. Morgan, Aurelien Tartar

Biology Faculty Articles

Scaffolds of a previously published Lagenidium giganteum ARSEF 373 genome assembly found at GenBank were filtered to remove contaminating sequences. Genome annotation of the 437 scaffolds (total length, 56.2 MB; GC content, 58.8%) with confirmed L. giganteum sequences identified 13,069 potential protein-coding genes, encoding at least 737 predicted secreted proteins and .100 putative translocated effectors

Energetic Connectivity Of Diverse Elasmobranch Populations – Implications For Ecological Resilience, Oliver N. Shipley, Philip Matich, Nigel E. Hussey, Annabelle M.L. Brooks, Demian Chapman, Michael G. Frisk, Annie E. Guttridge, Tristan L. Guttridge, Lucy A. Howey, Sami Kattan, Daniel J. Madigan, Owen O’Shea, Nicholas V. Polunin, Michael Power, Matthew J. Smukall, Eric V.C. Schneider, Brendan D. Shea, Brendan S. Talwar, Maggie Winchester, Edward J. Brooks

Integrative Biology Publications

Understanding the factors shaping patterns of ecological resilience is critical for mitigating the loss of global biodiversity. Throughout aquatic environments, highly mobile predators are thought to serve as important vectors of energy between ecosystems thereby promoting stability and resilience. However, the role these predators play in connecting food webs and promoting energy flow remains poorly understood in most contexts. Using carbon and nitrogen isotopes, we quantified the use of several prey resource pools (small oceanic forage, large oceanics, coral reef, and seagrass) by 17 species of elasmobranch fishes (n = 351 individuals) in The Bahamas to determine their functional diversity …

Evaluation Of Eastern Gamagrass As Dual-Purpose Complementary Bioenergy And Forage Feedstock To Switchgrass, Christina Kieffer, Dafeng Hui, Roser Matamala, Jianwei Li, Donald Tyler, E. Kudjo Dzantor

Biology Faculty Research

Switchgrass (SG) is considered a model bioenergy crop and a warm-season perennial grass (WSPG) that traditionally served as forage feedstock in the United States. To avoid the sole dependence on SG for bioenergy production, evaluation of other crops to diversify the pool of feedstock is needed. We conducted a 3-year field experiment evaluating eastern gamagrass (GG), another WSPG, as complementary feedstock to SG in one- and two-cut systems, with or without intercropping with crimson clover or hairy vetch, and under different nitrogen (N) application rates. Our results showed that GG generally produced lower biomass (by 29.5%), theoretical ethanol potential (TEP, …