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Frequency Of Rickettsia Sps. In Dermacentor Variabilis And Amblyomma Americanum In Central Hanover County, Virginia, Peggy Ann Keefe

Master's Theses

In the eastern United States, Dermacentor variabilis is the primary vector of Rickettsia rickettsii, the etiological agent for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in eastern United States increased steadily from 1959 to 1979 to a peak of one case per 200,000 people in 1979 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1985). In 1976, 98.9% of the reported cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever were east of the 100th meridian with 1.1% occurring west of the 100th meridian (Burgdorfer, 1977). Hanover County, Virginia is an endemic area for this disease (Sonenshine, 1971); the last reported case was …

Cloning And Sequencing Of The Eco Rii Monomer Fragment Of Satellite Dna From The Mouse Mus Musculus, Timothy Patrick Boyle

Masters Theses

Total mouse satellite DNA was isolated in cesium chloride gradients in the presence of the dye Hoechst 33258. This satellite fraction was digested with Bst Nl, an isoschizomer of the restriction enzyme Eco RII, and the 234 base pair monomer fragment was cloned into the plasmid vector pBS. Dideoxynucleotide sequencing of the cloned DNA yielded significant homology with the published consensus sequence of mouse satellite DNA (92%).

The Effects Of Varying Light Exposure Times On The Colonization And Sporulation Of Gigaspora Margarita In The California Pepper, Mary E. Kirker

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biology by Mary E. Kirker on July 24, 1989.

Ua66/6/2 Bionews From The Hill, Wku Biology

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about WKU Biology highlighting the activities of faculty, students and alumni.

The Paradigm Of Huntington Disease, John B. Jenkins, P. M. Conneally

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Remipedia (Crustacea): A Study Of Their Reproduction And Ecology, Jill Yager

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Remipedes are an unusual group of troglobitic crustaceans that live exclusively in anchialine caves. Since their discovery in 1979, nine species have been described, seven of which are found in caves in the West Indies, one from the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and one from the Canary Islands. Most of what is known about these animals has come mainly from taxonomic descriptions. Little has been published about their reproductive biology or ecology. The objectives of this dissertation were to investigate the reproductive biology and ecology of the remipedes inhabiting Sagittarius Cave on Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas.

Sagittarius Cave was chosen …

Mounting Sex Pheromone: A Novel Pheromone Responsible For Mate Recognition In The Ixodidae, Jgc Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

Cholesterol oleate was demonstrated to be the cuticular contact sex pheromone of Dermacentor variabilis. This pheromone which has been termed the Mounting Sex Pheromone (MSP) was also demonstrated to be present on the surface of D. andersoni, Amblyomma maculatum and A. americanum. This contact sex pheromone enables males excited and attracted by 2,6-dichlorophenol to identify the female as a potential mating partner. The MSP is the second in the series of three sex pheromones guiding the hierarchy of behavioral responses which constitute tick courtship behavior. Tests with D. variabilis and D. andersoni showed that this pheromone …

Identification Of Excitatory Interneurons Contributing To Generation Of Locomotion In Lamprey: Structure, Pharmacology, And Function, James T. Buchanan, Stan Grillner, Staffan Cullheim, Mårten Risling

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

1. In the in vitro preparation of the lamprey spinal cord, paired intracellular recordings of membrane potential were used to identify interneurons producing excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) on myotomal motoneurons. 2. Seventy-nine interneurons (8.4% of all neuron-motoneuron pairs tested) elicited unitary EPSPs that followed one-for-one at short, constant latencies and were therefore considered monosynaptic according to conventional criteria. Evidence was obtained for selectivity and divergence of excitatory interneuron (EIN) outputs and for convergence of EIN input to motoneurons. 3. The neurotransmitter released by EINs may be an excitatory amino acid such as glutamate, because the EPSPs were depressed by antagonists …

Effects Of Resident Species On Recruitment Into A Community: Larval Settlement Versus Post-Settlement Mortality In The Oyster Crassostrea Virginica, Roman Zajac, Richard W. Osman, Robert B. Whitlatch

Biology and Environmental Science Faculty Publications

Laboratory and field experiments revealed that a variety of species of common, sessile invertebrates, including barnacles, ascidians, and bryozoans, affected the settlement and post-settlement abundance of the oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin). While the nature of the effects varied, most species both reduced oyster settlement by covering and removing substrate available for attachment, and increased settlement on adjacent surfaces. The solitary ascidians Ciona intestinalis (L.) and Styela clava (Herdman), were found to be predators of oyster larvae. Post-settlement survivorship and growth were also strongly affected by the presence of sessile species. In most cases the effects were negative and correlated with …

Recent Uses Of Electron Microscopy In The Study Of Physico-Chemical Processes Affecting The Reactivity Of Synthetic And Biological Apatites, J. D. B. Featherstone, D. G. A. Nelson

Scanning Microscopy

Studies which used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to investigate subsurface demineralization of dental enamel have recently been well reviewed. The purpose of the present paper was to review several studies, carried out in our laboratories, which have used electron microscopy to examine physicochemical properties of synthetic and biological apatites, to relate these results to previous studies, and to present new data.

Aspects of the ultrastructure of hydroxyapatite and carbonated-apatites have been observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and related to shape and growth of these crystals.

Surface morphologies of discs prepared from precipitated carbonated-apatites and from ceramic carbonated-apatites were …

Identification Of Cyclic Intermediates In Azorhizobium Caulinodans Nicotinate Catabolism, Christopher Kitts, Lisa E. Schaechter, Ross S. Rabin, Robert A. Ludwig

Biological Sciences

In wild-type Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS571, nicotinate served both as anabolic substrate for NAD⁺ production and as catabolic substrate for use as the N source. Catabolic enzyme activities were greatest from cultures grown with nicotinate as the N source and least when cultures were grown with ammonium as the N source. Vector insertion mutants unable to catabolize nicotinate (nic::Vi mutants) still required micromolar quantities of this compound for growth. Therefore, A. caulinodans wild type is NAD⁺ auxotrophic. As the first two intermediates in A. caulinodans nicotinate catabolism, two cyclic compounds, 6-hydroxynicotinate and 1,4,5,6-tetrahydro-6-oxonicotinate, were identified. These compounds …

Southern Demersal Gillnet And Longline Fishery., Management Advisory Committee

Fisheries Management Papers

In its report to the Ministier for Fisheries in November 1986, the Southern Western Australian Shark Working Group recommended the establishment of an Industry/Government Mangement Advisory Committee to provide managememt advice on the fishery to the Minister for Fisheries. The Advisory Committee held its first meeting in Albany on 23 February 1989. After being briefed on the state of shark stocks, the Committee's deliberations fell into three broad categories. In the first category there was sufficient time and information available to make a recommendation to the Minister for Fisheries. In the second category, discussion commenced, but was held over to …

Amino Acid Uptake And Metabolism By Larvae Of The Marine Worm Urechis Caupo (Echiura), A New Species In Axenic Culture, William Jaeckle, Donal T. Manahan

Scholarship

Axenic (bacteria-free) larval cultures of the marine echiuran worm, Urechis caupo, were reliably obtained by aseptically removing gametes directly from the gamete storage organs. Trochophore larvae only removed neutral amino acids from seawater as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). There was no detectable uptake, as measured by HPLC, of acidic or basic amino acids. Kinetic analysis showed that the transport system for alanine in 4-day-old larvae had a K_t of 4-6 _μM and a J_max of 9-10 pmol larva^-1 h^-1. Following a 50-min exposure, the majority of the radio-activity (95%) from ^{14 …}

Modulation Of Macrophage Chemiluminescence By Biological Response Modifiers And Neuroendocrine Hormones, Jeffrey M. Tosk

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Neuroendocrine mediators have been shown to influence a broad spectrum of immune functions suggesting the existence of a neuroimmune regulatory axis effecting feedback control of the immune response. Most studies in support of this paradigm have employed either intact animals or immune cells derived from blood and other tissues. Under these conditions it becomes difficult to cope with numerous variables associated with the complex milieu of the immune system and the interpretation of data. An in vitro model using a murine macrophage cell line, J774, was developed to circumvent these problems. Using this model, macrophages activated by exposure to the …

Heartbeat Rate Modulation Mediated By The Ventral Nerve Cord In The Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera, Ernest R. Schwab

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Most insect circulatory physiologists believe the insect heart to be myogenic. There is disagreement, however, about mechanisms regulating heart function. Modulation is considered to occur via either neural or neurohormonal mechanisms but there is little existing data of the type necessary for proving one mechanism or the other. Using the recording technique of impedance conversion, heartbeat patterns were established for intact Honey Bees during rest and also during nectar feeding and locomotion, activities that both result in modulating heartbeat. Heartbeat patterns were then described separately for bees in which assumed neural regulation was disrupted (the ventral nerve cord was transected), …

Isolation, Growth Characteristics, And Long-Term Storage Of Fungi Cultivated By Attine Ants, Jerome J. Howard

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Seven pure-culture strains of fungi cultivated by attine ants (ant-garden fungi) were isolated from locally maintained leaf-cutting ant colonies. An ant-garden fungus strain obtained from an Atta cephalotes colony, when offered to ants of the colony from which the fungus was isolated, was accepted as their own. Young fungus cultures were harvested and incorporated into the fungus garden, and cultures of intermediate age were used to begin a new fungus garden; old cultures were simply harvested. To facilitate further research on this fungus, growth characteristics of the different isolates were studied under a variety of conditions. They grew better at …

Field Playback Of Male Display Attracts Females In Lek Breeding Sage Grouse, Robert M. Gibson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Recent correlational studies of lekking sage grouse suggest that male vocal display attracts females. To test this hypothesis further, the natural displays of a territorial male were supplemented with the tape-recorded display of another reproductively successful individual. Significantly, more females approached the speaker's location on days when the recording was played, and also on nonplayback days immediately following a playback, than on other nonplayback days. Analysis of male displays indicated that females were responding to the playback itself rather than to changes in male behavior. The "after-response" following a playback suggests that some females present during a playback remembered its …

Temporal And Spatial Patterns Of Abundance Of Age 0 Threadfin Shad (Dorosoma Petenense) In Overton Arm, Lake Mead, William Lee Pelle

Publications (WR)

Temporal and spatial patterns of age 0 threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) abundance and growth, in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead, were examined to evaluate the effects of resource availability on the young fish. This was part of a larger, game fishery enhancement study (Lake Mead Fertilization Project), designed to assess feasability of increasing survivorship of larval/juvenile shad by boosting phosphate levels, thereby increasing algal and zooplankton biomass, during the shad spawning period. Shad are the primary forage base for the striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and black bass (Macropterus salmoides) fisheries. Weekly samples were …

Molecular Analysis Of N6-Methyladenine Patterns In Tetrahymena Thermophila Nuclear Dna, Elizabeth E. Capowski, John M. Wells, Gail Singer Harrison, Kathleen M. Karrer

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

We have cloned two DNA fragments containing 5'-GATC-3' sites at which the adenine is methylated in the macronucleus of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. Using these cloned fragments as molecular probes, we analyzed the maintenance of methylation patterns at two partially and two uniformly methylated sites. Our results suggest that a semiconservative copying model for maintenance of methylation is not sufficient to account for the methylation patterns we found during somatic growth of Tetrahymena. Although we detected hemimethylated molecules in macronuclear DNA, they were present in both replicating and nonreplicating DNA. In addition, we observed that a complex methylation …

Contractile Function Of Single Muscle Fibers After Hindlimb Suspension, P. R. Gardetto, Jane Marie Schluter, Robert H. Fitts

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this investigation was to determine how muscle atrophy produced by the hindlimb suspension (HS) model alters the contractile function of slow- and fast-twitch single muscle fibers. After 2 wk of HS, small bundles of fibers were isolated from the soleus and the deep and superficial regions of the lateral and medial heads of the gastrocnemius, respectively. The bundles were placed in skinning solution and stored at -20ºC until studied. Single fibers were isolated and suspended between a motor arm and force transducer, the functional properties were studied, and subsequently the fiber type was established by myosin heavy …

Annual Variation Of Estuarine And Oceanic Oyster Crassostrea Virginica Gmelin Hemocyte Capacity, William S. Fisher, Marnita M. Chintala, Mark A. Moline

Biological Sciences

Defense-related hemocyte activities of American oysters Crassostrea virginica Gmelin from an oceanic and an estuarine habitat were monitored from spring to winter of 1987 at a constant temperature (15 °C). The ability of cells to spread to an ameboid shape in vitro at ambient salinity and after an acute change in salinity was much reduced from late spring to early fall. This summer-stress period was also indicated by laboratory experiments. Stress may have been due to high water temperatures but spawning efforts may have also contributed. Reduced hemocyte activity occurred at a time when infections by two major oyster parasites …

Geographic Allozyme Variation In Kentucky Populations Of The Desmognathus Fuscus Complex (Plethodontidae), Russell M. Meadows

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Russell M. Meadows on May 8, 1989.

Symbolic Interactionist And Neurophysiological Models Of Action Towards An Integration, David Spencer Fearon

Senior Scholar Papers

This research proposal introduces an integrated study of action and human conduct from the perspectives of symbolic interaction and neurophysiology. Because of their traditionally disparate subject matter, the fields of sociological social psychology and the neurosciences seldom meet; however, I have found significant common ground to justify an integrated approach to the study of action. Symbolic interactionists study human group life and conduct in society. The neurosciences deal with the physiology of the central nervous system, its structure and functions in behavior, its chemical composition, and electrochemical activity, and the effects damage has on behavior. Both fields analyze the same …

Isolation & Characterization Of A Type I Topoisomerase From The Hypocotyls Of Etiolated Soybeans, Rick Dye

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Topoisomerases are enzymes of critical biological significance. Despite this fact, little data specific to the topoisomerases of higher plants has been published. This research was undertaken to isolate and characterize a higher plant topoisomerase from soybean hypocotyls to further the understanding of the structure and function of these enzymes.

Nuclei were isolated from frozen hypocotyls of 4 day old etiolated soybeans by homogenization and centrifugation, then lysed by gentle stirring in the presence of 1.5 mM ammonium sulfate. The resultant extract was desalted and purified by column chromatography on DEAF sepharose, 5-200 sephacryl and CM cellulose. The components of the …

Hands-On Activities That Relate Mendelian Genetics To Cell-Division, Heather Mckean, Linda S. Gibson

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Management Of The Perth Metropolitan Purse-Seine Fishery., N. Moore

Fisheries Management Papers

This report outlines the management plan for the limited entry purse-seine fishery for small pelagic fish in coastal waters between Lancelin and Cape Bouvard and seaward to the 200 mile limit of the Australian Fishing Zone. The plan includes Cockburn Sound.

Partial Purification & Characterization Of A Carboxylesterase From The Greater Wax Moth Larva, David Garst

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Various properties of a carboxylesterase of the greater wax moth larva, Galleria melionella (L.), and a commercial carboxylic ester hydrolase (EC 3.1.1.1) from porcine liver were examined. The larval enzyme was partially purified. Esterase activities were determined with acetylsalicylic acid, 0-acetyl-m-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 0-acetyl-phydroxybenzoic acid in tris buffer (0.05 M tris, 0.1 M EDTA, pH 7.85). The larval enzyme was partially purified by a combination of acetone powder preparation, ammonium sulfate precipitation, anion exchange chromatography, 0-200 gel filtration, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE).

The acetone powder preparation was initially obtained and tested for esterolytic activity. The ammonium sulfate fractionation greatly …

Export And Intercellular Transfer Of Dna Via Membrane Blebs Of Neisseria-Gonorrhoeae, David W. Dorward, Claude F. Garon, Ralph C. Judd

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Naturally elaborated membrane bleb material is frequently observed in cultures of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. This material was purified and analyzed for protein, lipopolysaccharide, and nucleic acid content. The electrophoretic protein profiles of two bleb-rich fractions, called BI and BII, were distinct, with only BII containing lipopolysaccharide and outer membrane proteins I and III. Both fractions contained RNA, circular DNA, and linear DNA. Exogenous pancreatic DNase I appeared to hydrolyze all bleb-associated DNA in fraction BI and the linear DNA in fraction BII. The circular DNA molecules associated with fraction BII resisted digestion. Electron microscopy of the bleb fractions verified their DNA …

The Use Of Banding Recovery Data To Estimate Dispersal Rates And Gene Flow In Avian Species: Case Studies In The Red-Winged Blackbird And Common Grackle, William S. Moore, Richard A. Dolbeer

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Dispersal resulting in gene flow strongly affects the evolution of genetic structure in populations. This report describes statistical estimators of dispersal parameters based on USFWS banding recovery records. Finite-area studies of avian species yield estimates of root-mean-square (RMS) dispersal along a transect of about 1 km per generation. In contrast, estimates of RMS dispersal for the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), based on USFWS banding recovery records, are 94.6 and 111.4 km per generation, respectively. Distributions for both species are extremely leptokurtic, and confidence intervals based on jackknife statistics are large because the estimators are sensitive …

Pebble Nest Microhabitats Of Semotilus Species (Pisces: Cyprinidae), James Timothy Magee

Master's Theses

The pebble nest microhabitats of four species of Semotilus were compared. Pit/mound nests of Semotilus corporalis were significantly larger than the pit/ridge nests of Semotilus atromaculatus, Semotilus lumbee, and Semotilus thoreauianus. Nests of S. corporalis were in wider and deeper streams. Pits of S. lumbee nests were longest of the four species; those of S. corporalis were widest and deepest. Semotilus corporalis used a greater proportion of larger stones (23 mm or greater) in nest construction than the other three species. There was no significant difference in the electivity index (percentage of nest pebble sizes versus those of the substrate) …