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Inhibition O F Herpes Simplex Virus-1 By Black Tea Extract, Sadé Diahann Randall

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Tea is a highly consumed beverage with numerous health benefits, such as antioxidant and antiviral properties. The compounds within tea that are believed to be associated with these benefits are polyphenols. Black tea polyphenols are known as theaflavins, and in previous studies have exhibited inhibitory effects on influenza and human immunodeficiency virus 1. Herpes simplex virus -1 (HSV-1) is an extremely common virus and has the ability to cause recurrent infections. A vast majority of adults have been exposed to the virus and could be asymptomatic. The purpose of this study was to determine the lowest inhibitory concentration of black …

Variation And Organization In Social Behavior: Infectious Disease And Human Intergroup Conflict And Warfare; And The Organization Of Foraging Behavior In Harvester Ants, Kenneth Letendre

Biology ETDs

Social behavior is an important contributor to the success of widely distributed animal taxa, including such distantly related taxa as humans and ants. There is variation in the features and organization of social systems based on ecological constraints and goals, as these alter the costs and benefits of social behaviors, and select for different optimal behaviors for social groups in different environments. I present two bodies of research: an effort to explain geographic variation in the frequency and intensity of human civil conflict; and an effort to describe and model the foraging behavior of colonies of harvester ants of the …

The Effects Of Precipitation Variability On C4 Photosynthesis, Net Primary Production And Soil Respiration In A Chihuahuan Desert Grassland, Michell L. Thomey

Biology ETDs

Although the Earths climate system has always been inherently variable, the magnitude and rate of anthropogenic climate change is subjecting ecosystems and the populations that they contain to novel environmental conditions. Because water is the most limiting resource, arid-semiarid ecosystems are likely to be highly responsive to future climate variability. The goal of my dissertation is to understand how precipitation variability affects primary productivity and soil respiration in desert grassland ecosystems. Initially, I reviewed the literature to understand how climate change affects net ecosystem exchange (NEE) across the warm deserts of North America (Chapter 2). Next, I examined the effects …

Lymphocyte Evolution And Ontogeny In Non-Eutherian Mammals, Xinxin Wang

Biology ETDs

Based on their different reproductive modes and evolutionary history, extant mammals are divided into three lineages: eutherians, marsupials and monotremes. Marsupials are the closest relatives to eutherians. They are born immune-incompetent. The characteristic that they develop their immune system postnatally makes them unique models to study newborn immune development and maternal immunology. As monotremes comprises the basal lineage of mammals, the study of monotreme immunology will provide unique insights regarding the origin of the mammalian immune system. Unfortunately, compared to our in-depth knowledge of eutherian immunology, especially humans and mice, knowledge of marsupial and monotreme immunology is scarce. The goal …

Cloning, Heterologous Expression In Yeast, And Biochemical Characterization Of Recombinant Putative Glucosyltransferase Clones 9 And 11 From Grapefruit (Citrus Paradisi), Anye Wamucho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flavonoids are plant secondary metabolites that play diverse roles in plants and human health. These compounds in most part exist in the glucosylated form. Grapefruit accumulates high levels of glucosylated flavonoids. Plant secondary product glucosyltransferases (GTs) catalyze the glucosylation reaction, but due to low homology at both the nucleotide and amino acid sequence level of different GTs, it is not possible to ascribe function based on sequence only. The hypotheses that PGT clones 9 and 11 are plant secondary product GTs and are biochemically regulated were tested. PGT 9 has been cloned into Pichia pastoris using the pPICZA and pPICZAα …

Cloning, Expression, And Biochemical Characterization Of Recombinant Putative Glucosyltransferases Clone 3 And 8 From Grapefruit (Citrus Paradisi), Deborah Hayford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The grapefruit plant, Citrus paradisi, tends to accumulate high levels of flavonoid glycosides such as flavanones and flavones. Flavonoids have a vast array of important functions in plants and also in humans. Glucosyltransferases (GTs) are enzymes responsible for glucosylation reactions. In our pursuit to study the structure and function of flavonoid GTs, we have used molecular approaches to identify, clone, express, and functionally characterize the enzymes. This research was designed to test the hypothesis that PGT3 is a flavonoid glucosyltransferase and is subject to biochemical regulation. PGT3 has been tested for GT activity with compounds representing subclasses of flavonoids …

Influence Of Substrate And Hydraulic Variables On Habitat Preferences Of A Sculptured And An Unsculptured Freshwater Mussel, Daniel Goodding

Biology Theses

Freshwater mussels of the family Unionidae in North America have been in decline for at least the past 150 years. Major causes behind the decline are thought to be related to alteration or loss of habitat. Recent efforts by researchers have focused on understanding habitat associations of mussels so that more effective conservation efforts can be applied. Recent studies have identified variables that limit mussel community distributions. These variables are a combination of substrate and hydraulic variables that are associated with substrate stability. Furthermore, recent studies have suggested mussel studies are most informative at larger spatial scales and at high …

Molecular Phylogenetics And Phylogeography Of The American Box Turtles (Terrapene Spp.), Bradley T. Martin

Biology Theses

The classification of the American box turtles (Terrapene spp.) has remained enigmatic to systematists. Previous comprehensive phylogenetic studies have focused primarily on morphology. The goal of this study was to re-assess the classification of Terrapene spp. by obtaining DNA sequence data from a broad geographic range and from all four species and 11 subspecies within the genus. Tissue samples were obtained for all taxa except for T. nelsoni klauberi. DNA was extracted, and the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome b (Cytb) and nuclear DNA (nucDNA) glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GAPD) genes were amplified via polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. The sequence data were analyzed …

Using Ecological Niche Modeling To Predict Occurence Of Rare Fish And Unionid Mussels In East Texas, Ashley Dunithan

Biology Theses

Fish and Unionid mussels are important components of aquatic ecosystems and the population decline of these organisms has become a topic of concern. Currently, there are six species of concern and three-state-threatened fish species and six state-threatened Unionid species that occur in east Texas. However, little information is known about the ecology of these species. In this study, I used ecological niche modeling, the software packages Maxent, and eleven abiotic environmental parameters to predict the probability of occurrence of rare fish and mussel species in east Texas. We were unable to model the fish species; however, the models for the …

The Interacting Effects Of Clumped Seed Dispersal And Distance- And Density-Dependent Mortality On Seedling Recruitment Patterns, Noelle G. Beckman, Claudia Neuhauser, Helene C. Muller-Landau

Biology Faculty Publications

1. Seed dispersal and natural enemies both influence spatial patterns of seedlings, which in turn influence future abiotic and biotic interactions, with consequences for plant populations, distributions and diversity. Clumped seed deposition is common, especially for vertebrate-dispersed seeds, and has the potential to significantly affect interactions with density-responsive enemies, yet has received relatively little attention.
2. We used spatially explicit simulation models to examine how different patterns of seed dispersal and natural enemy attack structure seedling spatial patterns. We simulated clumped seed dispersal by combining a two-dimensional Student’s T dispersal kernel for expected seed rain with a negative binomial distribution for seed …

Terrestrial Vertebrate Families On Noah's Ark, Seth J. Beech

Senior Honors Theses

One of the central challenges faced by young-Earth creation researchers who believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God is defending the Biblical claim that two of every kind of nephesh animal was saved from the great flood on Noah’s ark. Recently, Answers in Genesis became involved in the design and construction of a full-sized, authentic replica of Noah’s ark. They have endeavored to be as accurate as possible in presenting the number of kinds that would have needed to be on the ark in order to have the diversity in species that we observe today. In order …

Sex Determination, Tony Gamble

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Multicellular animals are a diverse lot, with widely varied body plans and lifestyles. One feature they share, however, is a nearly universal reliance on sexual reproduction for species propagation. Humans have long been fascinated by human sex differences and formal theories on how human sex is determined date at least to Aristotle (in De Generatione Animalium, ca. 335 BCE). However, it is only in the past couple of decades that the genetic and molecular programs responsible for generating the two sexes have been understood in any detail. Sex, it turns out, can be established by many very different and …

Assessing The Genotoxicity Of Triclosan In Tadpoles Of The American Bullfrog, Lithobates Catesbeianus., David Emery

Theses and Dissertations

Amphibians are particularly sensitive to environmental degradation and, therefore, serve as effective environmental quality indicators. Research has suggested that amphibian declines are exacerbated by manmade environmental toxicants, especially those found in high concentrations in urban areas. The NIH has pinpointed genotoxicity as a major route of cancer causation, and has since developed stringent testing procedures for potentially hazardous chemicals. One such method, recognized for its simplicity and economy, is the micronucleus assay. A study was conducted assessing the genotoxicity of the widely used antimicrobial agent Triclosan to American Bullfrog tadpoles. Lithobates catesbeianus tadpoles were reared in glass aquaria containing ultra-high …

The Effects Of Invasive Grasses On The Survival And Germination Of Native Forbs, Rachel A. King

Scripps Senior Theses

Invasive species are an increasingly severe conservation problem that can dramatically alter native plant communities. Although ecologists have proposed many mechanisms for the dominance of invasive species, superior competitive ability is one of the longest standing hypotheses. In winter annual plant communities, germination timing affects competition among plants. I hypothesized that grass invasion has changed the costs and benefits of early and late germination, and that species with flexible germination timing would compete better with invasives. Experiments at the Bernard Field Station in Claremont, CA and germinator trials in a controlled environment were used to examine the survivorship and germination …

A Plant Virus Substrate Induces Early Upregulation Of Bmp2 For Rapid Bone Formation, Pongkwan Sitasuwan, L. Andrew Lee, Peng Bo, Erin N. Davis, Yuan Lin, Qian Wang

Faculty Publications

Many nanoscale materials have been developed to investigate the effects on stem cell differentiations via topographical and chemical cues for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The use of plant viruses as cell supporting substrates has been of particular interest due to the rapid induction of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) towards osteogenic cells. In this study, the role of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and its early effects on osteoinduction with particular emphasis on the regulation of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) was examined. We observed that the cells on the virus substrate immediately aggregated and formed bone-like …

Initial Trends In The Kentucky Buck Test Program, Robert S. Kelly

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Robert S. Kelly on April 20, 2012.

Migration Distance And Sexual Dichromatism: Cost Of Migration Is Correlated With Reduced Female Coloration In Wood Warblers, Richard K. Simpson

Biology Honors Theses

Avian sexual dichromatism has been observed to be greater at higher latitudes, and one of the long-standing explanations for the underlying evolutionary forces underlying this geographic pattern is the breeding latitude hypothesis, which focuses on changes in male ornamentation and posits that sexual selection for male ornamentation is stronger at higher latitudes. I offer an alterative hypothesis that focuses on how changes in female coloration can drive the evolution of sexual dichromatism. I propose that the costs of migration, including increased predation risk and high energetic costs, negatively select against elaborate plumage coloration, and that the distance a species migrates …

Expression Of The Pair-Rule Gene Homologs Runt, Pax3/7, Even-Skipped-1 And Even-Skipped-2 During Larval And Juvenile Development Of The Polychaete Annelid Capitella Teleta Does Not Support A Role In Segmentation, Elaine C. Seaver, Emi Yamaguchi, Gemma S. Richards, Néva P. Meyer

Biology

Background: Annelids and arthropods each possess a segmented body. Whether this similarity represents an evolutionary convergence or inheritance from a common segmented ancestor is the subject of ongoing investigation.Methods: To investigate whether annelids and arthropods share molecular components that control segmentation, we isolated orthologs of the Drosophila melanogaster pair-rule genes, runt, paired (Pax3/7) and eve, from the polychaete annelid Capitella teleta and used whole mount in situ hybridization to characterize their expression patterns.Results: When segments first appear, expression of the single C. teleta runt ortholog is only detected in the brain. Later, Ct-runt is expressed in the ventral nerve cord, …

Novel Mouse Mammary Cell Lines For In Vivo Bioluminescence Imaging (Bli) Of Bone Metastasis, Celeste Bolin, Caleb Sutherland, Ken Tawara, Jim Moselhy, Cheryl Jorcyk

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Tumor cell lines that can be tracked in vivo during tumorigenesis and metastasis provide vital tools for studying the specific cellular mechanisms that mediate these processes as well as investigating therapeutic targets to inhibit them. The goal of this study was to engineer imageable mouse mammary tumor cell lines with discrete propensities to metastasize to bone in vivo. Two novel luciferase expressing cell lines were developed and characterized for use in the study of breast cancer metastasis to bone in a syngeneic mouse model.

Results

The 4T1.2 luc3 and 66c14 luc2 cell lines were shown to have high …

Nuclear Ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (Its) Region As A Universal Dna Barcode Marker For Fungi, Eric Tretter, Yan Wang, Eric M. Johnson, Merlin M. White

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Six DNA regions were evaluated as potential DNA barcodes for Fungi, the second largest kingdom of eukaryotic life, by a multinational, multilaboratory consortium. The region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 used as the animal barcode was excluded as a potential marker, because it is difficult to amplify in fungi, often includes large introns, and can be insufficiently variable. Three subunits from the nuclear ribosomal RNA cistron were compared together with regions of three representative protein-coding genes (largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, and minichromosome maintenance protein). Although the protein-coding …

Roles Of The Drosophila Sk Channel (Dsk) In Courtship Memory, Ahmad N. Abou Tayoun, Claudio Pikielny, Patrick J. Dolph

Dartmouth Scholarship

A role for SK channels in synaptic plasticity has been very well-characterized. However, in the absence of simple genetic animal models, their role in behavioral memory remains elusive. Here, we take advantage of Drosophila melanogaster with its single SK gene (dSK) and well-established courtship memory assay to investigate the contribution of this channel to memory. Using two independent dSK alleles, a null mutation and a dominant negative subunit, we show that while dSK negatively regulates the acquisition of short-term memory 30 min after a short training session, it is required for normal long-term memory 24 h after extended …

Fused Traditional And Geometric Morphometrics Demonstrate Pinniped Whisker Diversity, Carly C. Ginter, Thomas J. Dewitt, Frank E. Fish, Christopher D. Marshall

Biology Faculty Publications

Vibrissae (whiskers) are important components of the mammalian tactile sensory system, and primarily function as detectors of vibrotactile information from the environment. Pinnipeds possess the largest vibrissae among mammals and their vibrissal hair shafts demonstrate a diversity of shapes. The vibrissae of most phocid seals exhibit a beaded morphology with repeating sequences of crests and troughs along their length. However, there are few detailed analyses of pinniped vibrissal morphology, and these are limited to a few species. Therefore, we comparatively characterized differences in vibrissal hair shaft morphologies among phocid species with a beaded profile, phocid species with a smooth profile, …

Contribution Of The Mnr2 Protein To Magnesium Homeostasis In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Nilambari Prafulla Pisat

Dissertations

Magnesium is an essential metal nutrient with diverse roles in biology. To maintain the optimal function of key biological processes, intracellular Mg2+ concentration is tightly regulated. Despite the importance of this process however, relatively little is known about mechanisms of Mg2+ homeostasis in eukaryotic cells. An understanding of homeostasis starts with defining the function of key transport proteins that allow the passage of Mg2+ ions across the membranes. Yeast geneticists have identified four proteins from Bakers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) involved in regulating the accumulation of Mg2+ within the cell (Alr1 and Alr2) and within the mitochondrial compartment (Mrs2 and Lpe10). …

Skin Regeneration In Adult Axolotls: A Blueprint For Scar-Free Healing In Vertebrates, Ashley W. Seifert, James R. Monaghan, S. Randal Voss, Malcolm Maden

Biology Faculty Publications

While considerable progress has been made towards understanding the complex processes and pathways that regulate human wound healing, regenerative medicine has been unable to develop therapies that coax the natural wound environment to heal scar-free. The inability to induce perfect skin regeneration stems partly from our limited understanding of how scar-free healing occurs in a natural setting. Here we have investigated the wound repair process in adult axolotls and demonstrate that they are capable of perfectly repairing full thickness excisional wounds made on the flank. In the context of mammalian wound repair, our findings reveal a substantial reduction in hemostasis, …

Characterizing The Role Of Pax And Six In An Emerging Model System, The Freshwater Sponge, E. Muelleri, Ian P. Winters

Honors Theses

Sponges can be viewed as a remnant branch of the earliest successful experiments in metazoan multi-cellularity. As such, these organisms hold many clues into the genetic elements fundamental to the formation of complex animalian life. Two of these elements are the transcription factor encoding genes PaxB and Six1/2. Homologs of these genes in animals more complex than sponges have been shown to be members of a gene regulatory network involved in organ development. This is of particular intrigue since sponges do not possess such organ systems. Here, I discuss the putative function of PaxB and Six1/2 in sponges, and whether …

Section Abstracts: Biology With Microbiology And Molecular Biology

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Biology with Microbiology and Molecular Biology Section for the 90th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-25, 2015, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Section Abstracts: Natural History And Biodiversity

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Natural History and Biodiversity Section for the 90th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-25, 2012, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Object Neophilia In Domestic Purebred Dogs, Lydia Kniowski

Senior Honors Theses

Neophilia is defined as a preference for novelty. This characteristic has been described in a variety of animal species, and may have been a contributing factor in the domestication of dogs. This study tested three purebred dog breeds for neophilia with inanimate objects. Observations of dogs’ selections when presented with two familiar toys and a novel toy were analyzed. Novel toys were preferred in 60% of selections presenting a significant neophilic trend (P=0.002). Of the breeds analyzed, Labradors selected novel toys 53% of the time, while Brittanys preferred them in 67% of selections. Although both breeds showed a …

Phylogeny And Phylogeography Of Mantophryne (Anura: Microhylidae) Reveals Cryptic Diversity In New Guinea, Lauren Oliver

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Phylogenetic Relationships In Sarraceniaceae Based On Conserved Sequences Generated From Sarracenia Alata, Danielle Fuselier

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.