Digital Commons Network^™

Antimicrobial Peptides In Transgenic Silkworm Silk, David Jaden Turner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Overview: People in India and China have produced silk textiles for thousands of years. Silk is a biodegradable, biocompatible compound used in the production of clothing, bedding, furniture, industrial materials, and medical applications. Over the last 30 years, research has increasingly investigated silk’s antimicrobial effects and how to augment its natural abilities. Antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, are also an area of increasing interest as the rise of antibiotic resistance reduces the efficacy of current treatments. This project plans to systematically synthesize a fusion protein that incorporates the beneficial properties of each constituent into commercial silkworms.

Innovation: This project seeks to …

Physiological Consequences Of Adrenal Enlargement And Implications For Toxin Resistance In North American Snakes, Megen E. Kepas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The long observed relationship between enlarged adrenal glands and toad-eating in snakes has remained a mystery in physiological ecology and herpetology. It has been predicted that large adrenal glands may be capable of producing higher amounts of key hormones, and that higher plasma hormone levels may lend some behavioral or physiological benefits after a toxic toad has been eaten. I address questions surrounding adrenal enlargement and its potential benefits to toad eaters in four research chapters. In my second chapter, I quantify adrenal hormone output at different embryonic stages in the toad-generalist snake Thamnophis elegans and examine the ability of …

Population Physiology, Demography, And Genetics Of Side-Blotched Lizards (Uta Stansburiana) Residing In Urban And Natural Environments, Spencer B. Hudson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wildlife populations across the globe are poised to lose their natural habitat to urbanization, yet there is limited information on how different species handle living in cities. Animals in urban environments are often susceptible to novel stressors, which can threaten their individual health and population viability. The physiological characteristics of animals, such as those related to metabolic hormones, oxidative stress, and immunity, are expected to be important for survival in this context. If so, animals persisting in urban areas may demonstrate physiological differences from their natural counterparts, perhaps due to evolutionary change. These potential outcomes have been documented in birds …

Shedding In The Timber Rattlesnake: Natural Patterns, Endocrinological Underpinnings, Temporal And Energetic Effort, And Integration As A Reptilian Life History Trait, Maxwell D. Carnes-Mason

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The semi-frequent replacement of the epidermis (ecdysis) is a characteristic trait of reptiles. Whereas all reptiles regularly engage in some degree of skin shedding, skin morphology in snakes necessitates the synchronous replacement of the entire epidermis and facilitates the subsequent removal of the old layer as a single sheet. To date, the ubiquitous process has garnered little attention from researchers because snakes shed with unpredictable timing and frequency and are exceedingly cryptic during ecdytic cycles; previously impeding detailed physiological or ecological investigations of the process in the clade. Because of the lack of study, ecdysis is often viewed as a …

The Third Domain Of T Cells In The Evolution Of Novel Immune Cell Types, Kimberly Anne Morrissey

Biology ETDs

αβ and γδ T cells play an essential role in the adaptive immune response and are present in the majority of jawed vertebrates. The T cell receptor (TCR) structure and genetic organization have been generally stable throughout 400 million years of gnathostome evolution. However, the TCRδ chain has displayed degrees of plasticity unseen in other TCR isoforms. One such form appears to be a chimera of a TCR chain with an antibody-like binding domain, known as VHδ and has been found a wide array of vertebrates including cartilaginous fish, coelacanths, amphibians, tuataras, birds, crocodilians, and monotreme mammals. Another, more extreme …

An Ecological Survey Of East Texas Salamanders Across The Camp Tyler Outdoor Field School In Smith County, Texas, Justin C. Hunt

Biology Theses

Amphibians are a unique class of organisms with a very long and storied evolutionary history of survival. Many modern amphibian clades occupy several vital ecological roles within their native freshwater environments. One of these roles, typically includes functioning as an ecological indicator species, whereby the presence of stable and diverse populations of many amphibian species, including salamanders, within a freshwater ecosystem have long been considered ecological indicators of good habitat quality and stable ecosystem health. Similarly, salamanders also function as important members of their local food webs and act as valuable mediators of complex trophic hierarchies to facilitate nutrient cycling …

Monitoring The Effects Of Poultry Waste On Fishes And Macroinvertebrates In The Sabine River, Karley R. Parker

Biology Theses

Freshwater is a vital resource that provides life and sustainability for almost all organisms on Earth. It is important to maintain its health and protect it from emerging pollutants that pose a threat to the organisms that use it. Pollution continues to threaten the well-being of the environment’s freshwater sources all around the world that could lead to damaging effects in the future. The Sabine River is a major freshwater resource in the east Texas and western Louisiana areas that provides a habitat for thousands of organisms as well as other domestic uses for humans. In 2019, a waste discharge …

Diversity Of Bees In Trees And Their Foraging Preferences On An Urban College Campus, Aidan Castricone

Biology Student Scholarship

Pollinators collect nutrients from blooming flowers; pollen provides proteins and fats, nectar provides carbohydrates. The few plants that bloom during early Spring are trees such as crabapple (Malus sp). Current research however, mainly focuses on pollinators that forage on the ground and overlooks pollinators foraging in the canopy of trees. Past research showed increased generalization of pollen foraging in bees as seasons move from spring to summer. Here I identified which bee species forage in the canopy on Providence College campus and will analyze the pollen collected using microscopy. This data can inform more specific research on diet breadth, …

Loss Of Flockmates Weakens Winter Site Fidelity In Golden-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia Atricapilla), Anastasia E. Madsen, Bruce E. Lyon, Alexis S. Chaine, Theadora A. Block, Daizaburo Shizuka

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Animal social interactions have an intrinsic spatial basis as many of these interactions occur in spatial proximity. This presents a dilemma when determining causality: Do individuals interact socially because they happen to share space, or do they share space because they are socially linked? We present a method that uses demographic turnover events as a natural experiment to investigate the links between social associations and space use in the context of interannual winter site fidelity in a migratory bird. We previously found that golden-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla) show consistent flocking relationships across years, and that familiarity between individuals …

Transcriptional Regulation Of The Synthesis And Secretion Of Farnesol In The Fungus Candida Albicans: Examination Of The Homann Transcription Regulator Knockout Collection, Daniel Gutzmann, Jaxon J. Kramer, Brigid M. Toomey, Cory Honsinger Thomas Boone, Audrey L. Atkin, Kenneth Nickerson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Candida albicans is an efficient colonizer of human gastrointestinal tracts and skin and is an opportunistic pathogen. C. albicans exhibits morphological plasticity, and the ability to switch between yeast and filamentous morphologies is associated with virulence. One regulator of this switch is the quorum sensing molecule farnesol that is produced by C. albicans throughout growth. However, the synthesis, secretion, regulation, and turnover of farnesol are not fully understood. To address this, we used our improved farnesol assay to screen a transcription regulator knockout library for differences in farnesol accumulation in whole cultures, pellets, and supernatants. All screened mutants …

Transcriptional Regulation Of The Synthesis And Secretion Of Farnesol In The Fungus Candida Albicans: Examination Of The Homann Transcription Regulator Knockout Collection, Daniel Gutzmann, Jaxon J. Kramer, Brigid M. Toomey, Cory Honsinger Thomas Boone, Audrey L. Atkin, Kenneth Nickerson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Candida albicans is an efficient colonizer of human gastrointestinal tracts and skin and is an opportunistic pathogen. C. albicans exhibits morphological plasticity, and the ability to switch between yeast and filamentous morphologies is associated with virulence. One regulator of this switch is the quorum sensing molecule farnesol that is produced by C. albicans throughout growth. However, the synthesis, secretion, regulation, and turnover of farnesol are not fully understood. To address this, we used our improved farnesol assay to screen a transcription regulator knockout library for differences in farnesol accumulation in whole cultures, pellets, and supernatants. All screened mutants produced …

Commercial Fishing Identification Guide 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Occasional Publications

Throughout this guide you will see all or some of the marine bioregion symbols with each fish illustration, indicating where the species is most likely to occur.

This guide has been developed to help you identify the more common species in Western Australia you may encounter. The purpose of this guide is to enhance consistent and accurate species identification.

If you are unsure about a particular species (or if it is not in this guide), please discuss it with a representative of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia.

Investigating The Costs And Benefits Of A Nutritional Fungal Endosymbiont, Nolan L. Perryman

Biology ETDs

Research on insect symbiosis is dominated by insect–bacteria models, however, the role of fungal symbionts in insects is poorly understood. Fungi are de novo synthesizers of many essential nutrients, therefore, insect–fungal pairings can permit specialization on nutritionally deprived diets. Here, I address the costs and benefits of symbiosis using a system of beetle–fungal symbiosis. Specifically, I ask 1) when reared on a low-quality diet, does the beetle increase the number of viable symbionts to compensate for a heightened nutritional demand, and 2) Is the conferred fitness benefit of the symbiont only present in low-quality diets? When reared on low-quality diets, …

Assessment Of Dna Concentration And Degradation From Extracted Bumble Bee Thorax Muscle 2023, Joel Lado, Ai Wen, Kenneth Elgersma

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the foundation of an organism's ability to develop, survive, and reproduce. High genomic DNA is imperative for many scientific studies and applications such as Biotechnology, Genetics, & Pharmaceuticals. The separation of genomic DNA once purified from other cellular components (RNA, protein) can be sequenced to study entire genomes, develop antibodies, and limit genetic mutations.

Although a very stable molecule, DNA is susceptible to degradation under normal cellular conditions to various factors. Hence it is essential to properly extract genetic material from bee specimens, to better understand their population genetics.

DNA often needs to be stored for …

Watermark Hiding In Hdr Image Based On Visual Saliency And Tucker Decomposition, Roa'a M. Al-Airaji, Ibtisam A. Aljazaery, Haider Th. Salim Alrikabi

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Recently, great attention has been paid to high dynamic range (HDR) images because of their richly detailed and high dynamic range of intensity. The need for pre-processing of the HDR image format with tone mapping (TM) operators makes it unique; the TM operators are provided on display with a low dynamic range (LDR). On the other hand, TM can be regarded as an inevitable attack when protecting HDR image ownership is considered. An adaptive approach for concealing watermarks based on visual saliency and Tucker decomposition has been presented in this article. In the first step, three feature maps were produced …

Historical Trends Of Aquatic Invasive Species Introduction And Establishment In Illinois, Usa, Carter S. Cranberg, Reuben Keller

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Tracking the introduction and establishment of aquatic invasive species (AIS) is important for monitoring the biological and economic health of freshwater environments. The state of Illinois (USA) is a critical region for understanding the threats of AIS because it possesses the only continuous aquatic habitat connecting the Laurentian Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins. In this study, we update a previous effort to catalogue and evaluate historical AIS records from Illinois. Our updated database shows that there are now at least 92 nonindigenous aquatic species established in Illinois and a further 51 have been recorded as introduced but not established. …

Biotic Interactions And The Maintenance Of Biodiversity Across A Tropical Elevational Gradient, David Henderson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

A major goal of community ecology is to elucidate the processes that create patterns of biodiversity. Specifically, the discipline focuses on the processes that influence community assembly, diversity gradients, and/or species coexistence. Coexistence mechanisms have been traditionally thought of in terms of resource competition, whereby species are able to coexist by having different niche requirements, both biotic and abiotic, that maximize their fitness. Much of the previous work in this arena focused on the abiotic factors that influence species coexistence. However, many of the seminal ideas about the forces that drive abundance and coexistence patterns hypothesized that it was differences …

N-Acetyltransferase 9 Ameliorates Aβ42-Mediated Neurodegeneration In The Drosophila Eye, Prajakta Deshpande, Anuradha Venkatakrishnan Chimata, Emily E. Snider, Aditi Singh, Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

Biology Faculty Publications

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, manifests as accumulation of amyloid-beta-42 (Aβ42) plaques and intracellular accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) that results in microtubule destabilization. Targeted expression of human Aβ42 (GMR > Aβ42) in developing Drosophila eye retinal neurons results in Aβ42 plaque(s) and mimics AD-like extensive neurodegeneration. However, there remains a gap in our understanding of the underlying mechanism(s) for Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration. To address this gap in information, we conducted a forward genetic screen, and identified N-acetyltransferase 9 (Mnat9) as a genetic modifier of GMR > Aβ42 neurodegenerative phenotype. Mnat9 is known to stabilize microtubules by inhibiting c-Jun-N- …

Early Stage Or Curable Cancer Diagnoses In Minorities: A Journey Of Survivors, Lora Asberry

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Patients diagnosed with early-staged or curable forms of cancer experience physical, as well as, mental challenges associated with disease progression and treatment. Previous studies have demonstrated that minorities and underrepresented communities did not receive the same level of care in comparison to their non-minority counterparts. Previous studies have also demonstrated that health disparities among minorities affected their cancer journey. This study addressed: how medical disparities varied between minorities and non-minorities, the overall effects of the cancer diagnoses in minorities compared to non-minorities, whether these perspectives differed in male vs. female participants, and whether there were any possible communication barriers between …

Striped Expression Of Leucine-Rich Repeat Proteins Coordinates Cell Intercalation And Compartment Boundary Formation In The Early Drosophila Embryo, Chloe A. Kuebler, Adam C. Pare

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Planar polarity is a commonly observed phenomenon in which proteins display a consistent asymmetry in their subcellular localization or activity across the plane of a tissue. During animal development, planar polarity is a fundamental mechanism for coordinating the behaviors of groups of cells to achieve anisotropic tissue remodeling, growth, and organization. Therefore, a primary focus of developmental biology research has been to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying planar polarity in a variety of systems to identify conserved principles of tissue organization. In the early Drosophila embryo, the germband neuroectoderm epithelium rapidly doubles in length along the anterior-posterior axis through a …

Preclinical Characterization Of The Efficacy And Safety Of Biologic N‑001 As A Novel Pain Analgesic For Post‑Operative Acute Pain Treatment, Derek Allen, Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao, Rylie Mcdonell, Karen‑Amanda Irvine, Peyman Sahbaie, David Clark, Paul H. Blum

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Inhibition of actin remodeling in nerves modulates action potential propagation and therefore could be used to treat acute pain. N-001 is a novel protein analgesic engineered from several C. Botulinum toxins. N-001 targets sensory neurons through ganglioside GT1b binding and ADP-ribosylates G-actin reducing actin remodeling. The activity and efficacy of N-001 was evaluated previously in vitro and in a mouse inflammatory pain model. To assess the relevance of N-001 for treatment of acute post-surgical pain, the current study evaluated the efficacy of N-001 in a mouse hind-paw incision model by periincisional and popliteal nerve block administration combined with mechanical …

Testing The Urban Dulling Hypothesis In An Iridescent Passerine Bird, Joanna Gresham

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Urbanization has brought grave consequences that lead to declines in many species; however, some species thrive in urban ecosystems. This allows us the opportunity to study evolution in real time, as species adapt and change in a new setting. Novel urban ecosystems have led to phenotypic divergence between urban and rural populations. There is a rich body of literature on how songbirds are affected by urbanization, however divergent signaling behaviors are less well understood. Urban color homogenization is well-documented in carotenoid-colored species. However, iridescent plumage is understudied in general, and little is understood about how environmental changes shape iridescent plumage. …

Rewiring Of Aminoacyl-Trna Synthetase Localization And Interactions In Plants With Extensive Mitochondrial Trna Gene Loss, Jessica M. Warren, Amanda K. Broz, Ana Martinez-Hottovy, Christian Elowsky, Alan C. Christensen, Daniel B. Sloan

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The number of tRNAs encoded in plant mitochondrial genomes varies considerably. Ongoing loss of bacterial-like mitochondrial tRNA genes in many lineages necessitates the import of nuclear-encoded counterparts that share little sequence similarity. Because tRNAs are involved in highly specific molecular interactions, this replacement process raises questions about the identity and trafficking of enzymes necessary for the maturation and function of newly imported tRNAs. In particular, the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) that charge tRNAs are usually divided into distinct classes that specialize on either organellar (mitochondrial and plastid) or nuclear-encoded (cytosolic) tRNAs. Here, we investigate the evolution of aaRS subcellular localization in …

Editorial: Climate Change And/Or Pollution On The Carbon Cycle In Terrestrial Ecosystems, Junjie Lin, Dafeng Hui, Amit Kumar, Zhiguo Yu, Yuhan Huang

Biology Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Comparing Four Indices Of Physiological Stress In An Urban-Adapted Songbird Between Urban And Rural Habitats, Rachel Kaplan

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Birds show tremendous variation in the extent to which different species tolerate life in urban habitats, yet it remains unclear why some species thrive while others cannot. My work explores possible phenotypes that make an urban-adapted species, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), so successful in both rural and urban areas. Literature on stress-urbanization relationship remains highly equivocal partly due to an array of different study systems being compared as well as to key methodological differences. The present study quantified metrics of both acute stress (i.e., stress-induced corticosterone and breath rate) and chronic stress (i.e., baseline corticosterone and total …

Molecular Dissection And Testing Of Prss37 Function Through Lc-Ms/Ms And The Generation Of A Prss37 Humanized Mouse Model, Courtney Sutton, Kaori Nozawa, Katarzyna Kent, Alexander Saltzman, Mei Leng, Sureshbabu Nagarajan, Anna Malovannaya, Masahito Ikawa, Thomas X Garcia, Martin M Matzuk

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The quest for a non-hormonal male contraceptive pill for men still exists. Serine protease 37 (PRSS37) is a sperm-specific protein that when ablated in mice renders them sterile. In this study we sought to examine the molecular sequelae of PRSS37 loss to better understand its molecular function, and to determine whether human PRSS37 could rescue the sterility phenotype of knockout (KO) mice, allowing for a more appropriate model for drug molecule testing. To this end, we used CRISPR-EZ to create mice lacking the entire coding region of Prss37, used pronuclear injection to create transgenic mice expressing human PRSS37, intercrossed these …

Cardiovascular Sars-Cov-2 Tropism And Immunopathology, Oleksandr Dmytrenko

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a member of beta-coronaviridae family. This single-stranded RNA virus is transmitted through a respiratory route, binds to a host receptor ACE2 and enters lung pneumocytes, causing fulminant pulmonary disease in a subset of patients. In addition to pulmonary disease, SARS-CoV-2 can also lead to extrapulmonary manifestations, affecting brain, kidneys, blood vessels and heart. Cardiac complications are common in COVID-19 patients with both mild and severe clinical courses. However, it remains unclear which cardiac cell types are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and what the consequences of their infection are. In this work, I identified …

Characterization Of Subcellular Functional Domains In The Vesicular Glutamate Transporter 3-Expressing Retinal Amacrine Cell Using Correlative Light And Electron Microscopy, Karl Friedrichsen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The following work seeks to better understand how neurons process multiple streams of information within the branches of their dendritic arbors. We use correlated light and electron microscopy to capture both live subcellular calcium responses and detailed morphology and synaptic connectivity in a unique retinal amacrine cell in order to directly study the relationship between structure and function. The vesicular glutamate transporter 3-expressing amacrine cell (VG3) selectively integrates and segregates visual information within its arbor branches and provides multiple target neuron types with appropriate excitatory or inhibitory synaptic inputs. By reconstructing VG3 arbor branches, synapses, and connected cell types, we …

Diving Into Aquatic Microbial Ecology And Evolution With Anne Thompson, Anne Thompson

PDXPLORES Podcast

On this episode of PDXPLORES, Assistant Professor of Biology, Anne Thompson, discusses her award-winning research work studying the diverse ecology of microorganisms found in Earth’s oceans. Thompson’s research examines microbial mortality impacts on the structure of oceanic food webs, carbon flow, and cell interactions that create dynamic patterns of nutrient and energy abundance within diverse aquatic ecosystems.

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The Role Of Metallothioneins In Copper Homeostasis In Arabidopsis, Matthew Vandal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Copper (Cu) is a transition metal that is an essential nutrient for plants and is required for a number of critical processes. Therefore, proper homeostasis of copper is vital for plant life and must be tightly regulated. Metallothioneins are small molecular weight proteins, rich in cysteine residues and have the capability of binding to several different transition metals such as copper. Cu induces the expression of MTs, therefore they are believed to be involved in Cu transport, however their true functions have yet to be resolved. T-DNA insertions were identified in four Arabidopsis MT genes expressed in vegetative tissues, and …