Digital Commons Network^™

Life Without Water: Expression Of Plant Lea Genes By An Anhydrobiotic Arthropod, Steven C. Hand, Dana Jones, Michael A. Menze, Trudy L. Witt

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Anhydrobiotic animals protect cellular architecture and metabolic machinery in the dry state, yet the molecular repertoire supporting this profound dehydration tolerance is not fully understood. For the desiccation-tolerant crustacean, Artemia franciscana, we report differential expression of two distinct mRNAs encoding for proteins that share sequence similarities and structural features with late-embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins originally discovered in plants. Bioinformatic analyses support assignment of the LEA proteins from A. franciscana to group 3. This eucoelomate species is the most highly evolved animal for which LEA gene expression has been reported. It is becoming clear that an ensemble of micromolecules and macromolecules …

Alaska At The Crossroads Of Migration: Space-Based Ornithology, Jill L. Deppe, K Wessels, J A. Smith

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Understanding bird migration on a global scale is one of the most compelling and challenging problems of modern biology. Each year multitudes of migratory birds travel between breeding grounds in Alaska and wintering grounds in the Americas, Asia, and Australia. Here we present the conceptual framework for a spatially explicit, individual-based biophysical migration model driven by dynamic remote sensing observations of atmospheric and land surface conditions to simulate migration routes, timing, energy budgets, and probability of survival. Understanding temporal and spatial patterns of bird migration will provide insight into pressing conservation and human health issues related to this taxonomic group.

Rapid Field Immunoassay For Detecting Antibody To Sin Nombre Virus In Deer Mice, Tony Schountz, Charles H. Calisher, Tiffany R. Richens, Audrey A. Rich, Jeffrey B. Doty, Mark T. Hughes, Barry J. Beaty

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

We developed a 1-hour field enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for detecting antibody to Sin Nombre virus in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). The assay specificity and sensitivity were comparable to those of a standard EIA. This test will permit identification of rodents with antibody to this and perhaps other hantaviruses.

Phylogenetic Analysis Of The Socioecology Of Neotomine-Peromyscine Rodents, M C. Kalcounis-Rueppell, David O. Ribble

Biology Faculty Research

This chapter focuses on the breeding systems of Neotomine-Peromyscine rodents. There are three specific objectives to this chapter. First, we describe the patterns for major Neotomine-Peromyscine clades using data collected from the literature (table 6.1). Second, we examine data from the literature on the following breeding behaviors: male spacing, female spacing, relative intersexual home range/territory size, paternal care, and juvenile dispersal patterns. We examine breeding behavior data in a phylogenetic framework to test if any phylogenetic patterns emerge in the observed variation in these breeding behaviors and if relationships occur among these behaviors. Third, we examine in a phylogenetic framework …

Dishonest ‘Preemptive’ Pursuit-Deterrent Signal? Why The Turquoise-Browed Motmot Wags Its Tail Before Feeding Nestlings, Troy G. Murphy

Biology Faculty Research

Both sexes of the turquoise-browed motmot, Eumomota superciliosa, display their long-racketed tail in an exaggerated side-to-side wag display in two contexts. In the first, the wag display is performed in the presence of predators (predator-elicited wag display), and evidence supports the hypothesis that the signal functions as a pursuit-deterrent signal (Murphy 2006, Behavioral Ecology, 17, 547e553). In the second, the wag display is performed in the apparent absence of predators immediately before feeding nestlings (prefeeding wag display). I tested four hypotheses on the adaptive significance of the prefeeding wag display: (1) a dishonest, preemptive, pursuit-deterrent signal given in case predators …

Stream Ambient Noise, Spectrum And Propagation Of Sounds In The Goby Padogobius Martensii: Sound Pressure And Particle Velocity, Marco Lugli, Michael L. Fine

Biology Publications

The most sensitive hearing and peak frequencies of courtship calls of the stream goby, Padogobius martensii, fall within a quiet window at around 100Hz in the ambient noise spectrum. Acoustic pressure was previously measured although Padogobius likely responds to particle motion. In this study a combination pressure (p) and particle velocity (u) detector was utilized to describe ambient noise of the habitat, the characteristics of the goby’s sounds and their attenuation with distance. The ambient noise (AN) spectrum is generally similar for p and u (including the quiet window at noisy locations), although the energy distribution of uspectrum is …

Is A Basketball Free-Throw Sequence Nonrandom? A Group Exercise For Undergraduate Statistics Students, Stephen C. Adolph

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

I describe a group exercise that I give to my undergraduate biostatistics class. The exercise involves analyzing a series of 200 consecutive basketball free-throw attempts to determine whether there is any evidence for sequential dependence in the probability of making a free-throw. The students are given the exercise before they have learned the appropriate statistical tests, so that they can come up with ideas on their own. Students spend a full class period working on the problem, with my guidance and hints. In the next class period, we discuss how each student group approached the problem. I then present several …

Models Of Density‐Dependent Genic Selection And A New Rock‐Paper‐Scissors Social System, Barry Sinervo, Benoit Heulin, Yann Surget-Groba, Jean Clobert, Donald B. Miles, Ammon Corl, Alexis Chaine, Alison Davis

Biology Faculty Publications

We describe new ESS models of density regulation driven by genic selection to explain the cyclical dynamics of a social system that exhibits a rock-paper-scissors (RPS) set of three alternative strategies. We tracked changes in morph frequency and fitness of Lacerta vivipara and found conspicuous RPS cycles. Morphs of Uta and Lacerta exhibited parallel survival-performance trade-offs. Frequency cycles in both species of lizards are driven by genic selection. In Lacerta, frequency of each allele in adult cohorts had significant impacts on juvenile recruitment, similar to mutualistic, altruistic, and antagonistic relations of RPS alleles in Uta. We constructed evolutionarily stable strategy …

Left-Right Olfactory Asymmetry Results From Antagonistic Functions Of Voltage-Activated Calcium Channels And The Raw Repeat Protein Olrn-1 In C. Elegans, S L. Bauer Haung, Y Saheki, Miri Vanhoven, I Torayama, T Ishihara, I Katsura, A Van Der Linden, P Sengupta, C I. Bargmann

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

The left and right AWC olfactory neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans differ in their functions and in their expression of chemosensory receptor genes; in each animal, one AWC randomly takes on one identity, designated AWCOFF, and the contralateral AWC becomes AWCON. Signaling between AWC neurons induces left-right asymmetry through a gap junction network and a claudin-related protein, which inhibit a calcium-regulated MAP kinase pathway in the neuron that becomes AWCON. Results We show here that the asymmetry gene olrn-1 acts downstream of the gap junction and claudin genes to inhibit the calcium-MAP kinase pathway in AWCON. OLRN-1, a protein with potential …

Feeding In Extreme Flows: Behavior Compensates For Mechanical Constraints In Barnacle Cirri, Luke P. Miller

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Plastic morphological changes in response to environmental cues can allow organisms to adapt to their local environment. Barnacle feeding legs (cirri) exhibit substantial plasticity in size and shape along wave exposure gradients on rocky shores, but only up to a certain limit in maximum water velocities. Above the limit, the morphology of the cirri becomes invariant. Behavioral observations of barnacles feeding at a wave-exposed shore indicate that the fast response time for feeding motions allows barnacles to avoid potentially damaging flows associated with breaking waves, while still allowing feeding between wave impacts. The ability of barnacles to avoid individual waves …

The Long And Winding Road: Influences Of Intracellular Metabolite Diffusion On Cellular Organization And Metabolism In Skeletal Muscle, Stephen T. Kinsey, Kristin M. Hardy, Bruce R. Locke

Biological Sciences

A fundamental principle of physiology is that cells are small in order to minimize diffusion distances for O₂ and intracellular metabolites. In skeletal muscle, it has long been recognized that aerobic fibers that are used for steady state locomotion tend to be smaller than anaerobic fibers that are used for burst movements. This tendency reflects the interaction between diffusion distances and aerobic ATP turnover rates, since maximal intracellular diffusion distances are ultimately limited by fiber size. The effect of diffusion distance on O₂ flux in muscle has been the subject of quantitative analyses for a century, but the …

Corticosterone And Foraging Behaviour In A Pelagic Seabird, F Angelier, Scott A. Shaffer, H Weimerskirch, C Trouvé, O Chastel

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Because endocrine mechanisms are thought to mediate behavioral responses to changes in the environment, examining these mechanisms is essential for understanding how long-lived seabirds adjust their foraging decisions to contrasting environmental conditions in order to maximize their fitness. In this context, the hormone corticosterone (CORT) deserves specific attention because of its major connections with locomotor activities. We examined for the first time the relationships between individual CORT levels and measurements of foraging success and behavior using satellite tracking and blood sampling from wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) before (pretrip CORT levels) and after (posttrip CORT levels) foraging trips during the incubation …

Selective Activation Of Estrogen Receptor-Β Transcriptional Pathways By An Herbal Extract, Aleksandra Cvoro, Sreenivasan Paruthiyil, Jeremy O. Jones, Christina Tzagarakis-Foster, Nicola J. Clegg, Deirdre Tatomer, Roanna T. Medina, Mary Tagliaferri, Fred Schaufele, Thomas S. Scanlan, Marc I. Diamond, Isaac Cohen, Dale C. Leitman

Biology Faculty Publications

Novel estrogenic therapies are needed that ameliorate menopausal symptoms and have the bone-sparing effects of endogenous estrogens but do not promote breast or uterine cancer. Recent evidence suggests that selective activation of the estrogen receptor (ER)-beta subtype inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation. To establish whether ERbeta-selective ligands represent a viable approach to improve hormone therapy, we investigated whether the estrogenic activities present in an herbal extract, MF101, used to treat hot flashes, are ERbeta selective. MF101 promoted ERbeta, but not ERalpha, activation of an estrogen response element upstream of the luciferase reporter gene. MF101 also selectively regulates transcription of endogenous …

Population Responses Of Wood Frog (Rana Sylvatica) Tadpoles To Overwintered Bullfrog (Rana Catesbeiana) Tadpoles, Leroy J. Walston, Stephen J. Mullin

Faculty Publications

A fundamental goal in ecology is to understand how environmental variation influences the distribution of individuals within a population. In this study, we used laboratory experiments to examine the population responses of sympatric Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica) tadpoles to native overwintered Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles. For periods of up to two weeks, we measured growth, activity, and refuge use of Wood Frog tadpoles in small mesocosms with and without an overwintered Bullfrog tadpole present. Bullfrog tadpoles had a negative effect on the growth of Wood Frog tadpoles allotopic (naive) to Bullfrogs, whereas the presence of Bullfrogs had no effect on …

Physical Contests For Females In The Japanese Beetle, Popillia Japonica, Paul Switzer, Kipp C. Kruse

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

We conducted field observations of physical competition for mates, in which a single male attempts to usurp a female from another male, in male Japanese beetles, Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae). Physical contests for mates were relatively rare, but when they occurred the challenger male was able to successfully takeover females by dislodging the previously paired resident male in only 18% of contests, suggesting that a substantial prior residency advantage exists in this species. Challenger males that were successful in takeover attempts were significantly larger than the resident male. In contrast, no size pattern was found between intruding males and …

Proximate Developmental Mediators Of Sexual Dimorphism In Size: Case Studies From Squamate Reptiles, Henry B. John‐Alder, Robert M. Cox, Emily N. Taylor

Biological Sciences

Sexual dimorphism in size (sexual size dimorphism; SSD) is nearly ubiquitous, but the relative importance of genetic versus environmental control of SSD is not known for most species. We investigated proximate determinants of SSD in several species of squamate reptiles, including three species of Sceloporus lizards and the diamond‐backed rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). In natural populations of these species, SSD is caused by sexual differences in age‐specific growth. Males and females, however, may often share similar potentials for growth: growth is strongly responsive to the availability of food, and sexual differences in growth can be greatly suppressed or completely …

Compartmentalization Of The Broad-Range Phospholipase C Activity To The Spreading Vacuole Is Critical For Listeria Monocytogenes Virulence, P.S. Marie Yeung, Yoojin Na, Amanda J. Kreuder, Helene Marquis

Biological Sciences

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterial pathogen that multipliesin the cytosol of host cells and spreads directly from cellto cell by using an actin-based mechanism of motility. The broad-rangephospholipase C (PC-PLC) of L. monocytogenes contributes tobacterial escape from vacuoles formed upon cell-to-cell spread.PC-PLC is made as an inactive proenzyme whose activation requirescleavage of an N-terminal propeptide. During infection, PC-PLCis activated specifically in acidified vacuoles. To assess theimportance of compartmentalizing PC-PLC activity during infection,we created a mutant that makes constitutively active PC-PLC(the plcBpro mutant). Results from intracellular growth andcell-to-cell spread assays showed that the plcBpro mutant wassensitive to gentamicin, suggesting …

Correlated Evolution Of Genome Size And Seed Mass, Jeremy M. Beaulieu, Angela T. Moles, Ilia J. Leitch, Michael D. Bennett, John B. Dickie, Charles A. Knight

Biological Sciences

• Previous investigators have identified strong positive relationships between genome size and seed mass within species, and across species from the same genus and family. • Here, we make the first broad-scale quantification of this relationship, using data for 1222 species, from 139 families and 48 orders. We analyzed the relationship between genome size and seed mass using a statistical framework that included four different tests. • A quadratic relationship between genome size and seed mass appeared to be driven by the large genome/seed mass gymnosperms and the many small genome size/large seed mass angiosperms. Very small seeds were never …

Consequences Of A Genetic Bottleneck In California Condors: A Mitochondrial Dna Perspective, Mary S. Adams, Francis X. Villablanca

Biological Sciences

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) has recently survived a severe population bottleneck. The entire population was reduced to 27 individuals in 1982. The number of genetic founders was even smaller. We obtained 482 base pairs of DNA sequence from the mitochondrial control region (CR) of all founder individuals that potentially represented unique maternal haplotypes. Four unique haplotypes were present in the genetic founders. One of these haplotypes is unique to Topatopa, a male brought into captivity in 1967, whose haplotype will not persist in the future population. Haplotype diversity (h) was reduced by 25% between the founder population …

Evaluation Of A Tissue Culture-Based Approach For Differentiating Between Virulent And Avirulent Vibrio Parahaemolyticus Strains Based On Cytotoxicity, P.S. Marie Yeung, Martin Wiedmann, Kathryn J. Boor

Biological Sciences

The ability of only a subset of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains to cause human infection underscores the need for an analytical method that can effectively differentiate between pathogenic strains and those that do not cause disease. We tested the feasibility of a tissue culture-based assay to determine whether clinical isolates could be differentiated from nonclinical isolates based on relative isolate cytopathogenicity. To screen for cytotoxic capability, we measured relative extracellular lactate dehydrogenase as an indicator of host cell damage in five different mammalian cell lines in the presence of V. parahaemolyticus. Isolates originating from clinical sources exhibited 15.5 to 59.3% …

A Putative Approach For Influencing Stomatal Density By Over-Expressing Nadp-Dependent Malic Enzyme In Arabidopsis, Michael M. Gabor

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Stomata are leaf structures critical for plant survival because they modulate the rate of transpiration. This study will examine a possible mode for regulating stomatal density by over-expressing NADP-dependent malic enzyme (NADP-ME), which is thought to deplete the counter-anion pool in Arabidopsis thaliana guard cells. It was hypothesized that over-expressing NADP-ME in Arabidopsis will elevate stomatal density. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to determine if any differences exist in numbers of stomatal complexes among transgenic lines and wild-type Arabidopsis. The results indicated a significant increase in stomatal numbers among some transgenic plant lines relative to the wild-type. Second, a series …

Behavioural Plasticity In An Ecological Generalist: Microhabitat Use By Western Fence Lizards, Dee A. Asbury, Stephen C. Adolph

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Question: What is the basis for geographic variation in microhabitat use in fence lizards?

Hypothesis: Population differences in microhabitat use reflect behavioural plasticity rather than genetic or experiential differences.

Organisms: Western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis).

Field site: Three sites (desert, valley, and mountain) in southern California, USA.

Methods: We compared habitat use by free-ranging lizards in three field populations. We also collected lizards from these three populations and studied their microhabitat use in experimental enclosures at a single field site.

Results: In the wild, lizards chose higher and shadier perches at the hottest (desert) site, lower and sunnier perches at …

Measuring Ultrasonic Communication Between Mouse Pups And Adult Mother Mice, Katie Ludwig

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

Measuring ultrasonic communication provides us with a way to study parental influence on animals. In this study I measured the ultrasonic communication between mouse pups and two maternal females, one of which who had given birth to the pups and the other had raised them. I found that there was no significant difference between the amount of noise expressed by pups in response to each the biological mother and foster mother test groups. Mouse pups call to maternal females regardless of genetic relatedness. Communication in mice may be a more complicated model because of their communal nature.