Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Germline Defects Caused By Smed-Boule Rna-Interference Reveal That Egg Capsule Deposition Occurs Independently Of Fertilization, Ovulation, Mating, Or The Presence Of Gametes In Planarian Flatworms, Jessica Kathryne Steiner, Junichi Tasaki, Labib Rouhana

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Few animals are known to lay eggs in the absence of ovulation or copulation, as it is presumably energetically wasteful and subjected to negative selection. Characterization of Smed-boule, a member of the DAZ family of germline RNA-binding proteins, revealed that egg capsule (or capsule) production and deposition occurs independently of the presence of gametes in the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea. Reduction of Smed-boule expression by RNA-interference (RNAi) causes ablation of spermatogonial stem cells and the inability of ovarian germline stem cells to undergo oogenesis. Although animals subjected to Smed-boule RNAi lose their gametes and become sterile, they continue …

Associations Between Ectomycorrhizal Fungi And Bacterial Needle Endophytes In Pinus Radiata: Implications For Biotic Selection Of Microbial Communities, Megan A. Rúa, Emily C. Wilson, Sarah Steele, Arielle R. Munters, Jason D. Hoeksema, Anna C. Frank

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Studies of the ecological and evolutionary relationships between plants and their associated microbes have long been focused on single microbes, or single microbial guilds, but in reality, plants associate with a diverse array of microbes from a varied set of guilds. As such, multitrophic interactions among plant-associated microbes from multiple guilds represent an area of developing research, and can reveal how complex microbial communities are structured around plants. Interactions between coniferous plants and their associated microbes provide a good model system for such studies, as conifers host a suite of microorganisms including mutualistic ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and foliar bacterial endophytes. …

Late Pleistocene Fishes Of The Tennessee River Basin: An Analysis Of A Late Pleistocene Freshwater Fish Fauna From Bell Cave (Site Acb-2) In Colbert County, Alabama, Usa, Stephen J. Jacquemin, Jun A. Ebersole, William C. Dickenson, Charles Ciampaglio

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The Tennessee River Basin is considered one of the most important regions for freshwater biodiversity anywhere on the globe. The Tennessee River Basin currently includes populations of at least half of the described contemporary diversity of extant North American freshwater fishes, crayfish, mussel, and gastropod species. However, comparatively little is known about the biodiversity of this basin from the Pleistocene Epoch, particularly the late Pleistocene (∼10,000 to 30,000 years B.P.) leading to modern Holocene fish diversity patterns. The objective of this study was to describe the fish assemblages of the Tennessee River Basin from the late Pleistocene using a series …

Epigenetics And Shared Molecular Processes In The Regeneration Of Complex Structures, Labib Rouhana, Junichi Tasaki

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The ability to regenerate complex structures is broadly represented in both plant and animal kingdoms. Although regenerative abilities vary significantly amongst metazoans, cumulative studies have identified cellular events that are broadly observed during regenerative events. For example, structural damage is recognized and wound healing initiated upon injury, which is followed by programmed cell death in the vicinity of damaged tissue and a burst in proliferation of progenitor cells. Sustained proliferation and localization of progenitor cells to site of injury give rise to an assembly of differentiating cells known as the regeneration blastema, which fosters the development of new tissue. Finally, …

A Century Of Morphological Variation In Cyprinidae Fishes, Stephen J. Jacquemin, Mark Pyron

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Aquatic habitats have been altered over the past century due to a variety of anthropogenic influences. Ecomorphology is an area of aquatic ecology that can both directly and indirectly assess the effects of habitat alterations on organisms. However, few studies have explored long term trends in morphological variation. Long term changes in morphology can potentially impact niche and ultimately contribute to organismal success and the ecosystem. Therefore, in this study we assessed long term morphological variation with body size, sex, time, and hydrology using museum collections of five species of Cyprinidae (Minnows) from lentic and lotic systems over the …