Digital Commons Network^™

Sterol Biosynthesis In Four Green Algae: A Bioinformatic Analysis Of The Ergosterol Versus Phytosterol Decision Point, Adam Voshall, Nakeirah T.M. Christie, Suzanne L. Rose, Maya Khasin, James L. Van Etten, Jennifer E. Markham, Wayne R. Riekhof, Kenneth Nickerson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Animals and fungi produce cholesterol and ergosterol, respectively, while plants produce the phytosterols stigmasterol, campesterol, and bsitosterol in various combinations. The recent sequencing of many algal genomes allows the detailed reconstruction of the sterol metabolic pathways. Here, we characterized sterol synthesis in two sequenced Chlorella spp., the free-living C. sorokiniana, and symbiotic C. variabilis NC64A. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was included as an internal control and Coccomyxa subellipsoidea as a plant-like outlier. We found that ergosterol was the major sterol produced by Chlorella spp. and C. reinhardtii, while C. subellipsoidea produced the three phytosterols found in plants. In silico analysis …

Temperature But Not Ocean Acidification Affects Energy Metabolism And Enzyme Activities In The Blue Mussel, Mytilus Edulis, Omera B. Matoo, Gisela Lannig, Christian Bock, Inna M. Sokolova

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. In mosaic marine habitats, such as intertidal zones, ocean acidification (OA) is exacerbated by high variability of pH, temperature, and biological CO₂ production. The nonlinear interactions among these drivers can be context-specific and their effect on organisms in these habitats remains largely unknown, warranting further investigation.

2. We were particularly interested in Mytilus edulis (the blue mussel) from intertidal zones of the Gulf of Maine (GOM), USA, for this study. GOM is a hot spot of global climate change (average sea surface temperature (SST) increasing by >0.2°C/year) with >60% decline in mussel population over the past 40 years. …

Pollinator Assemblage And Pollen Load Differences On Sympatric Diploid And Tetraploid Cytotypes Of The Desert-Dominant Larrea Tridentata, Robert G. Laport, Robert L. Minckley, Diana Pilson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

PREMISE: Whole-genome duplication (polyploidy) is an important force shaping flowering-plant evolution. Ploidy-specific plant–pollinator interactions represent important community-level biotic interactions that can lead to nonrandom mating and the persistence of mixed-ploidy populations.

METHODS: At a naturally occurring diploid–tetraploid contact zone of the autopolyploid desert shrub Larrea tridentata, we combined flower phenology analyses, collections of bees on plants of known cytotype, and flow cytometry analyses of bee-collected pollen loads to investigate whether (1) diploid and tetraploid plants have unique bee pollinator assemblages, (2) bee taxa exhibit ploidy-specific visitation and pollen collection biases, and (3) specialist and generalist bee taxa …

Our Past Creates Our Present: A Brief Overview Of Racism And Colonialism In Western Paleontology, Pedro M. Monarrez, Joshua B. Zimmt, Annaka M. Clement, William Gearty, John J. Jacisin Iii, Kelsey M. Jenkins, Kristopher Mm. Kusnerik, Carmi Milagros Thompson, Ashley W. Poust, Selina V. Robson, Judith A. Sclafani, Kelsey T. Stilson, Shamindri D. Tennakoon

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

As practitioners of a historical science, paleontologists and geoscientists are well versed in the idea that the ability to understand and to anticipate the future relies upon our collective knowledge of the past. Despite this understanding, the fundamental role that the history of paleontology and the geosciences plays in shaping the structure and culture of our disciplines is seldom recognized and therefore not acted upon sufficiently. Here, we present a brief review of the history of paleontology and geology in Western countries, with a particular focus on North America since the 1800s. Western paleontology and geology are intertwined with systematic …

Co-Targeting Strategy For Precise, Scarless Gene Editing With Crispr/Cas9 And Donor Ssodns In Chlamydomonas, Soujanya Akella, Xinrong Ma, Romana Bacova, Zachary P. Harmer, Martina Kolackova, Xiaoxue Wen, David A. Wright, Martin H. Spalding, Donald P. Weeks, Heriberto Cerutti

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Programmable site-specific nucleases, such as the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/ CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), have allowed creation of valuable knockout mutations and targeted gene modifications in Chlamydomonas (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii).

However, in walled strains, present methods for editing genes lacking a selectable phenotype involve co-transfection of RNPs and exogenous doublestranded DNA (dsDNA) encoding a selectable marker gene. Repair of the dsDNA breaks induced by the RNPs is usually accompanied by genomic insertion of exogenous dsDNA fragments, hindering the recovery of precise, scarless mutations in target genes of interest. Here, we tested whether co-targeting two …

Bringing Disciplines And People Together To Characterize The Plastic And Genetic Responses Of Molluscs To Environmental Change, Omera B. Matoo, Maurine Neiman

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Molluscs are remarkably diverse and are found across nearly all ecosystems, meaning that members of this ancient animal phylum provide a powerful means to study genomic-phenotype connections in a climate change framework. Recent advances in genomic sequencing technologies and genome assembly approaches finally allow the relatively cheap and tractable assembly of high-quality mollusc genome resources. After a brief review of these issues and advances, we use a case-study approach to provide some concrete examples of phenotypic plasticity and genomic adaptation in molluscs in response to environmental factors expected to be influenced by climate change. Our goal is to use molluscs …

Opposing Community Assembly Patterns For Dominant And Nondominant Plant Species In Herbaceous Ecosystems Globally, Carlos Alberto Arnillas, Elizabeth T. Borer, Eric W. Seabloom, Juan Alberti, Selene Baez, Jonathan D. Bakker, Elizabeth H. Boughton, Yvonne M. Buckley, Miguel Nuno Bugalho, Ian Donohue, John Dwyer, Jennifer Firn, Riley Gridzak, Nicole Hagenah, Yann Hautier, Aveliina Helm, Anke Jentsch, Johannes M. H. Knops, Kimberly J. Komatsu, Lauri Laanisto, Ramesh Laungani, Rebecca Mcculley, Joslin L. Moore, John W. Morgan, Pablo Luis Peri, Sally A. Power, Jodi Price, Mahesh Sankaran, Brandon Schamp, Karina Speziale, Rachel Standish, Risto Virtanen, Marc W. Cadotte

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Biotic and abiotic factors interact with dominant plants—the locally most frequent or with the largest coverage—and nondominant plants differently, partially because dominant plants modify the environment where nondominant plants grow. For instance, if dominant plants compete strongly, they will deplete most resources, forcing nondominant plants into a narrower niche space. Conversely, if dominant plants are constrained by the environment, they might not exhaust available resources but instead may ameliorate environmental stressors that usually limit nondominants. Hence, the nature of interactions among nondominant species could be modified by dominant species. Furthermore, these differences could translate into a disparity in the phylogenetic …

A Functional Genomic Screen In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Reveals Divergent Mechanisms Of Resistance To Different Alkylphosphocholine Chemotherapeutic Agents, Jaquelin M. Garcia, Michael J. Schwabe, Dennis R. Voelker, Wayne R. Riekhof

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The alkylphosphocholine (APC) class of antineoplastic and antiprotozoal drugs, such as edelfosine and miltefosine, are structural mimics of lyso-phosphatidylcholine (lyso-PC), and are inhibitory to the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae at low micromolar concentrations. Cytotoxic effects related to inhibition of phospholipid synthesis, induction of an unfolded protein response, inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation, and disruption of lipid rafts have been attributed to members of this drug class, however, the molecular mechanisms of action of these drugs remain incompletely understood. Cytostatic and cytotoxic effects of the APCs exhibit variability with regard to chemical structure, leading to differences in effectiveness against different organisms or cell …

Unique Structure And Positive Selection Promote The Rapid Divergence Of Drosophila Y Chromosomes, Ching-Ho Chang, Lauren E. Gregory, Kathleen E. Gordon, Colin D. Meiklejohn, Amanda M. Larracuente

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Y chromosomes across diverse species convergently evolve a gene-poor, heterochromatic organization enriched for duplicated genes, LTR retrotransposons, and satellite DNA. Sexual antagonism and a loss of recombination play major roles in the degeneration of young Y chromosomes. However, the processes shaping the evolution of mature, already degenerated Y chromosomes are less well-understood. Because Y chromosomes evolve rapidly, comparisons between closely related species are particularly useful. We generated de novo long-read assemblies complemented with cytological validation to reveal Y chromosome organization in three closely related species of the Drosophila simulans complex, which diverged only 250,000 years ago and share >98% sequence …

Targeted Manipulation Of Abundant And Rare Taxa In The Daphnia Magna Microbiota With Antibiotics Impacts Host Fitness Differentially, Reilly O. Cooper, Janna M. Vavra, Clayton E. Cressler

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Host-associated microbes contribute to host fitness, but it is unclear whether these contributions are from rare keystone taxa, numerically abundant taxa, or interactions among community members. Experimental perturbation of the microbiota can highlight functionally important taxa; however, this approach is primarily applied in systems with complex communities where the perturbation affects hundreds of taxa, making it difficult to pinpoint contributions of key community members. Here, we use the ecological model organism Daphnia magna to examine the importance of rare and abundant taxa by perturbing its relatively simple microbiota with targeted antibiotics. We used sublethal antibiotic doses to target either rare …

Within- And Trans-Generational Environmental Adaptation To Climate Change: Perspectives And New Challenges, Naim M. Bautista, Amélie Crespel

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The current and projected impacts of climate change are shaped by unprecedented rates of change in environmental conditions. These changes likely mismatch the existing coping capacities of organisms within-generations and impose challenges for population resilience across generations. To better understand the impacts of projected scenarios of climate change on organismal fitness and population maintenance, it is crucial to consider and integrate the proximate sources of variability of plastic and adaptive responses to environmental change in future empirical approaches. Here we explore the implications of considering: (a) the variability in different time-scale events of climate change; (b) the variability in plastic …

A Consensus‑Based Ensemble Approach To Improve Transcriptome Assembly, Adam Voshall, Sairam Behera, Xiangjun Li, Xiao‑Hong Yu, Kushagra Kapil, Jitender S. Deogun, John Shanklin, Edgar B. Cahoon, Etsuko N. Moriyama

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Systems-level analyses, such as differential gene expression analysis, co-expression analysis, and metabolic pathway reconstruction, depend on the accuracy of the transcriptome. Multiple tools exist to perform transcriptome assembly from RNAseq data. However, assembling high quality transcriptomes is still not a trivial problem. This is especially the case for non-model organisms where adequate reference genomes are often not available. Different methods produce different transcriptome models and there is no easy way to determine which are more accurate. Furthermore, having alternative-splicing events exacerbates such difficult assembly problems. While benchmarking transcriptome assemblies is critical, this is also not trivial due to the …

Genbio-Maps As A Case Study To Understand And Address The Effects Of Test-Taking Motivation In Low-Stakes Program Assessments, Crystal Uminski, Brian A. Couch

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The General Biology–Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment measures student understanding of the Vision and Change core concepts at the beginning, middle, and end of undergraduate biology degree programs. Assessment coordinators typically administer this instrument as a low-stakes assignment for which students receive participation credit. While these conditions can elicit high participation rates, it remains unclear how to best measure and account for potential variation in the amount of effort students give to the assessment. To better understand student test-taking motivation, we analyzed GenBio-MAPS data from more than 8000 students at 20 institutions. While the majority of students …

Interactions With Soil Fungi Alter Density Dependence And Neighborhood Effects In A Locally Abundant Dipterocarp Species, R. Max Segnitz, Sabrina E. Russo, Kabir G. Peay

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Seedling recruitment can be strongly affected by the composition of nearby plant species. At the neighborhood scale (on the order of tens of meters), adult conspecifics can modify soil chemistry and the presence of host microbes (pathogens and mutualists) across their combined canopy area or rooting zones. At local or small spatial scales (on the order of one to few meters), conspecific seed or seedling density can influence the strength of intraspecific light and resource competition and also modify the density-dependent spread of natural enemies such as pathogens or invertebrate predators. Intrinsic correlation between proximity to adult conspecifics (i.e., recruitment …

Sex Role Similarity And Sexual Selection Predict Male And Female Song Elaboration And Dimorphism In Fairy-Wrens, Karan J. Odom, Kristal E. Cain, Michelle L. Hall, Naomi E. Langmore, Raoul A. Mulder, Sonia Kleindorfer, Jordan Karubian, Lyanne Brouwer, Emma I. Greig, Christine Evans, Allison E. Johnson, Kimberley K.-A. Meyers, Marcelo Araya-Salas, Michael S. Webster, Erik D. Enbody, John Anthony Jones, Jenélle L. Dowling, Ana V. Leitão

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Historically, bird song complexity was thought to evolve primarily through sexual selection on males; yet, in many species, both sexes sing and selection pressure on both sexes may be broader. Previous research suggests competition for mates and resources during short, synchronous breeding seasons leads to more elaborate male songs at high, temperate latitudes. Furthermore, we expect male–female song structure and elaboration to be more similar at lower, tropical latitudes, where longer breeding seasons and year-round territoriality yield similar social selection pressures in both sexes. However, studies seldom take both types of selective pressures and sexes into account. We examined song …

Testing The Strength And Direction Of Selection On Vocal Frequency Using Metabolic Scaling Theory, Clinton D. Francis, Matthew R. Wilkins

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

A major challenge for studies assessing drivers of phenotypic divergence is the statistical comparison of taxa with unique, often unknown, evolutionary histories, and for which there are no clear expected trait values. Because many traits are fundamentally constrained by energy availability, we suggest that trait values predicted by scaling theories such as the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) can provide baseline expectations. Here, we introduce a metabolic scaling-based approach to test theory involving the direction and magnitude of ecological and sexual selection, using vocal frequency as an example target of selection. First, we demonstrate that MTE predicts the relationship between …

In Situ Characterization Of Municipal Solid Waste Using Membrane Interface Probe (Mip) And Hydraulic Profiling Tool (Hpt) In An Active And Closed Landfill, M. Sina Mousavi, Yuan Feng, Josh Mccann, Jongwan Eun

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills near a metropolitan area are renewable energy resources to produce heat and methane that can generate electricity. However, it is difficult to use those sources productively because disposed MSW in landfills are spatially and temporally heterogeneous. Regarding the prediction of the sources, the analysis of in situ MSW properties is an alternative way to reduce the uncertainty and to understand complex processes undergoing in the landfill effectively. A hydraulic profiling tool (HPT) and membrane interface probe (MIP) test measures the continuous profile of MSW properties with depth, including hydraulic pressure, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), and …

A Hybrid Biological-Adsorption Approach For The Treatment Of Contaminated Groundwater Using Immobilized Nanoclay-Algae Mixtures, Sara Mollamohammada, Ashraf Aly Hassan, Mohamed Dahab, Sandeep Kumar

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mixing the Scenedesmus species with nanoclay and immobilizing in sodium was evaluated as a sustainable treatment method for removing nitrate, atrazine, and metals from groundwater. Gel beads containing the hybrid mixture removed 100% of 10 mg/L N nitrate and 98% of 100 μg/L atrazine from synthetic groundwater in three days. The optimal amount of nanoclay was found to be 0.30 mg per bead. The experimental data fit well into a Freundlich adsorption iso- therm and followed pseudo first-order kinetics. When tested in actual groundwater, 91% of nitrate and 100% of Cr, Se, and V were eliminated in three days without …

Natural Hazards Perspectives On Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (Icon) Science, Sanjib Sharma, Kshitij Dahal, Lorenzo Nava, Manish Raj Gouli, Rocky Talchabhadel, Jeeban Panthi, Tirthankar Roy, Ganesh R. Ghimire

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This article is about the state of ICON principles Goldman et al. (2021), https://doi. org/10.1029/2021EO153180 in natural hazards and a discussion on the opportunities and challenges of adopting them. Natural hazards pose risks to society, infrastructure, and the environment. Hazard interactions and their cascading phenomena in space and time can further intensify the impacts. Natural hazards’ risks are expected to increase in the future due to environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic changes. It is important to quantify and effectively communicate risks to inform the design and implementation of risk mitigation and adaptation strategies. Multihazard multisector risk management poses several nontrivial challenges, …

Pectin Modified Metal Nanoparticles And Their Application In Property Modification Of Biosensors, Meena Nemiwal, Tian C. Zhang, Dinesh Kumar

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Pectin is a structural anionic heteropolysaccharide and abundantly found in the cell wall of terrestrial trees and plants. It exhibits several advantageous properties such as non-toxicity, cheap, biodegradable, biocompatible, abundant, flexible, etc. Functional groups like carboxylic acid and hydroxyl make pectin suitable to be covalently bonded with other biomolecules and proteins. Based on these properties, pectin is being extensively employed to encapsulate/coat metal nanoparticles (MNPs) to inhibit their aggregation and enhancing the suitability of MNPs for a wide range of applications in healthcare like drug delivery, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant etc. Another important application of pectin is to enhance the electrochemical …

Combining Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction And Anammox For Treatment Of Nitrate-Rich Wastewater: A Short Review, Xinyi Zou, Chongjun Chen, Changhong Wang, Qun Zhang, Zhuowei Yu, Haiping Wu, Chao Zhuo, Tian C. Zhang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Treatment of nitrate-rich wastewater is important but challenging for the conventional biological denitrification process. Here, we propose combining the electrochemical reduction and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes together for treatment of nitrate-rich wastewater. This article reviews the mechanism and current research status of electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonium as well as the mechanism and applicability of the anammox process. This article discusses the principles, superiorities, and challenges of this combined process. The feasibility of the combined process depends on the efficiency of electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonium and the conditions in the anammox process to use the reduced ammonium …

Comparisons Of Oral, Intestinal, And Pancreatic Bacterial Microbiomes In Patients With Pancreatic Cancer And Other Gastrointestinal Diseases, Mei Chung, Naisi Zhao, Richard Meier, Devin C. Koestler, Guojun Wu, Erika De Castillo, Bruce J. Paster, Kevin Charpentier, Jacques Izard, Karl T. Kelsey, Dominique S. Michaud

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Background: Oral microbiota is believed to play important roles in systemic diseases, including cancer. Methods: We collected oral samples (tongue, buccal, supragingival, and saliva) and pancreatic tissue or intestinal samples from 52 subjects, and characterized 16S rRNA genes using high-throughput DNA sequencing.

Results: Bray–Curtis plot showed clear separations between bacterial communities in the oral cavity and those in intestinal and pancreatic tissue samples. PERMANOVA tests indicated that bacterial communities from buccal samples were similar to supragingival and saliva samples, and pancreatic duct samples were similar to pancreatic tumor samples, but all other samples were significantly different from each …

Single-Dose Oral Challenges To Validate Eliciting Doses In Children With Cow’S Milk Allergy, Paul J. Turner, Yvonne M. D'Art, Bettina Duca, Sophia A. Chastell, Guadalupe Marco-Martin, Rosialzira N. Vera-Berrios, Olaya Alvarez, Raphaëlle Bazire, Pablo Rodríguez Del Río, Marta Vazquez-Ortiz, Joseph L. Baumert, Ronald Van Ree, Clare E.N. Mills, Montserrat Fernandez-Rivas, Jonathan O.B. Hourihane

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Background: There is increasing interest in the use of eliciting doses (EDs) to inform allergen risk management. The ED can be estimated from the distribution of threshold doses for allergic subjects undergoing food challenges within a specified population. Estimated ED₀₅ values for cow's milk (the dose expected to cause objective allergic symptoms in 5% of the milk-allergic population) range from 0.5 mg to 13.9 mg cow's milk protein. We undertook a single-dose challenge study to validate a predicted ED₀₅ for cow's milk of 0.5 mg protein.

Methods: Participants were recruited from 4 clinical centres. Predetermined criteria were used …

Spatial Transferability Of Expert Opinion Models For American Beaver Habitat, Isidro Barela, Leslie M. Burger, Guiming Wang, Kristine O. Evans, Qingmin Meng, Jimmy D. Taylor

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Species distribution models and habitat suitability models (HSMs) have become a popular tool in the conservation of biodiversity. However, the ability to predict species spatial distributions at sites beyond the data source sites (i.e., spatial transferability) is critical for the applications of HSMs in the management and conservation of rare or endangered species. The main objective of our study was to assess the predictive performance and spatial transferability of expert opinion models (EOMs). To build EOMs, we identified through extensive literature reviews 17 key landscape variables to characterize habitat use by American beaver (Castor canadensis). We developed 31 pairwise opinion …

Evidence For Continental-Scale Dispersal Of Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria By Landfill-Foraging Gulls, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Mariëlle L. Van Toor, Hanna Woksepp, Jeffrey C. Chandler, John A. Reed, Andrew B. Reeves, Jonas Waldenström, Alan B. Franklin, David C. Douglas, Jonas Bonnedahl, Andrew M. Ramey

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Anthropogenic inputs into the environment may serve as sources of antimicrobial resistant bacteria and alter the ecology and population dynamics of synanthropic wild animals by providing supplemental forage. In this study, we used a combination of phenotypic and genomic approaches to characterize antimicrobial resistant indicator bacteria, animal telemetry to describe host movement patterns, and a novel modeling approach to combine information fromthese diverse data streams to investigate the acquisition and long-distance dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria by landfill-foraging gulls. Our results provide evidence that gulls acquire antimicrobial resistant bacteria from anthropogenic sources, which they may subsequently disperse across and between …

Food Habits Of Wintering Double-Crested Cormorants In The Mississippi Delta, Terrel W. Christie, Brian S. Dorr, J. Brian Davis, Luke A. Roy, Carole R. Engle, Katie Hanson-Dorr, Anita M. Kelly

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Given its ubiquity, it is not surprising that agriculture, including fin fish aquaculture, contributes to food webs worldwide and is used by numerous wildlife for foraging and meeting other needs. Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) impact United States commercial aquaculture and are considered the primary avian predator in catfish (Ictalurus spp.) aquaculture facilities in the Mississippi Delta. Recent changes in aquaculture practices, regulatory policies, and decreased overall hectares in production prompted this study that assessed cormorant consumption of catfish in relation to their night roosts through surveys and diet analysis. Cormorants were collected from night roosts from October …

Environmental Correlates Of Genetic Variation In The Invasive European Starling In North America, Natalie R. Hofmeister, Scott J. Werner, Irby J. Lovette

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Populations of invasive species that colonize and spread in novel environments may differentiate both through demographic processes and local selection. European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were introduced to New York in 1890 and subsequently spread throughout North America, becoming one of the most widespread and numerous bird species on the continent. Genome-wide comparisons across starling individuals and populations can identify demographic and/or selective factors that facilitated this rapid and successful expansion. We investigated patterns of genomic diversity and differentiation using reduced-representation genome sequencing of 17 winter-season sampling sites. Consistent with this species' high dispersal rate and rapid expansion history, …

Population Genomic Transformations Induced By Isolation Of Wild Bird Avian Influenza Viruses (Orthomyxoviridae) In Embryonated Chicken Eggs, Matthew W. Hopken, Antoinette J. Piaggio, K. L. Pabilonia, James Pierce, Theodore Anderson, Courtney Pierce, Zaid Abdo

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Isolation and cultivation of wild-type viruses in model organism cells or tissues is standard practice in virology. Oftentimes, the virus host species is distantly related to the species from which the culture system was developed. Thus, virus culture in these tissues and cells basically constitutes a host jump, which can lead to genomic changes through genetic drift and/or adaptation to the culture system. We directly sequenced 70 avian influenza virus (Orthomyxoviridae) genomes from oropharyngeal/cloacal swabs collected from wild bird species and paired virus isolates propagated from the same samples following isolation in specific-pathogen-free embryonated chicken eggs. The data were analyzed …

Estimation Of Wildlife Damage From Federal Crop Insurance Data, Sophie Mckee, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Aaron M. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: Wildlife damage to crops is a persistent and costly problem for many farmers in the USA. Most existing estimates of crop damage have relied on direct assessment methods such as field studies conducted by trained biologists or surveys distributed to farmers. In this paper, we describe a new method of estimating wildlife damage that exploits federal crop insurance data. We focused our study on four crops: corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton, chosen because of their economic importance and their vulnerability to wildlife damage.

RESULTS: We determined crop-raiding hot spots across the USA over the 2015–2019 period and identified the …

Inefficiency Of Anthraquinone-Based Avian Repellents When Applied To Sunflower: The Importance Of Crop Vegetative And Floral Characteristics In Field Applications, Brandon Kaiser, Burton L. Johnson, Mike Ostlie, Scott J. Werner, Page E. Klug

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: Blackbirds (Icteridae) cause significant damage to sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) prompting the need for effective management tools. Anthraquinone-based repellents can reduce feeding by > 80% in laboratory settings, but require birds to learn the negative association through repellent ingestion. We evaluated an anthraquinone-based repellent applied directly to mature sunflower plants for its ability to reduce bird damage. We used captive male red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) to evaluate efficacy of two anthraquinone-based formulations in varying concentrations and applied in a manner attainable by sunflower producers. We also assessed field application methods for repellent coverage and anthraquinone residues when …