Life Sciences Commons^™

Microsatellite Analysis Of Mating And Kinship In Beavers (Castor Canadensis)., J C. Cawford, Zhiwei Liu, T A. Nelson, C K. Nielsen, C K. Bloomquist

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Annotation Of The Bacteriophage 933w Genome: An In-Class Interactive Web-Based Exercise, Kai F. Hung

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Mitochondria In Energy-Limited States: Mechanisms That Blunt The Signaling Of Cell Death, Steven C. Hand, Michael A. Menze

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Cellular conditions experienced during energy-limited states – elevated calcium, shifts in cellular adenylate status, compromised mitochondrial membrane potential – are precisely those that trigger, at least in mammals, the mitochondrion to initiate opening of the permeability transition pore, to assemble additional protein release channels, and to release pro-apoptotic factors. These proapototic factors in turn activate initiator and executer caspases. How is activation of mitochondria-based pathways for the signaling of apoptotic and necrotic cell death avoided under conditions of hypoxia, anoxia, diapause, estivation and anhydrobiosis? Functional trade-offs in environmental tolerance may have occurred in parallel with the evolution of diversified pathways …

Variation In Surrounding Forest Habitat Influences The Initial Orientation Of Juvenile Amphibians Emigrating From Breeding Ponds, Leroy J. Walston, Stephen J. Mullin

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Clapper Rails As Indicators Of Mercury And Pcb Bioavailability In A Georgia Saltmarsh System, James C. Cumbee Jr., Karen F. Gaines, Gary L. Mills, N. Garvin, Warren L. Stephens Jr., James N. Novak, I. L. Brisbin Jr.

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Clapper rails (Rallus longirostris) were used as an indicator species of estuarine marsh habitat quality because of their strong site fidelity and predictable diet consisting of mostly benthic organisms. Mercury (Hg) and the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) Aroclor 1268 concentrations were determined for sediments, crabs, as well as clapper rail adults and chicks collected from salt marshes associated with the LCP Superfund site in Brunswick, Georgia. Home ranges were established for adult rails, and sediment and crab samples were taken from each individual’s range. The study was designed to minimize the spatial variability associated with trophic transfer studies by choosing an …

Exposure And Exposure Modeling, Karen F. Gaines, T. E. Chow, S. A. Dyer

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Exposure to contaminants in the environment is quantified through the ecological risk assessment (ERA) process which provides a framework for the development and implementation of environmental management decisions. The ERA uses available toxicological and ecological information to estimate the probability of occurrence for a specified undesired ecological event or endpoint. The level for these endpoints depends on the objectives and the constraints imposed upon the risk assessment process; therefore, multiple endpoints at different scales may be necessary. ERAs Ecotoxicology | Exposure and Exposure Assessment 1527Author's personal copy often rely on the link between these undesired endpoints to a threshold of …

The Correct Genus For The Jingle Bell Orchid, Harrisella Porrecta, Barbara S. Carlsward, Mark Whitten

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Environmental Conditions Affect Sperm Competition Risk In Japanese Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), Paul V. Switzer, Carissa A. Schoenick, Patrick C. Enstrom

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Males of many species guard their mates to prevent rivals from usurping paternity of the potential offspring. Environmental conditions, such as temperature, may affect a male’s ability to guard a female effectively and consequently the amount of sperm competition that occurs. We tested whether temperature and light affected mating behavior in laboratory experiments on the Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman, a species in which males guard females for minutes to many hours after mating. When tested in groups, under conditions of high temperature and high light, males guarded females for shorter periods of time and males and females both mated …

Microsatellite Analysis Of Mating And Kinship In Beavers (Castor Canadensis)., J Cawford, Zhiwei Liu, T Nelson, C Nielsen, C Bloomquist

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Spatial And Temporal Expression Profiling Of Cell-Wall Invertase Genes During Early Development In Hybrid Poplar, Thomas Canam, Sarah Mak, Shawn Mansfield

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Cell-wall invertase genes are spatially and temporally regulated in several plant species, including Daucus carota L., Lycopersicon esculentum L. and Solanum tuberosum L. However, few studies of cell-wall invertase genes of trees have been conducted, despite the importance of trees as a source of lignocellulosic biopolymers.We identified three putative cell-wall invertase genes in hybrid poplar (Populus alba L. × grandidentata Michx.) that showed higher homology to each other than to cell-wall invertases of other dicotyledonous species, with two of the genes (Pa×gINV2 and Pa×gINV3) appearing as a genomic tandem repeat. These genes are more similar to each other than to …

Vegetative Anatomy Of Calypsoeae (Orchidaceae), William Stern, Barbara Carlsward

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Calypsoeae represent a small tribe of anatomically little-known orchids with a wide distribution in the Western Hemisphere. Leaves are present in all genera, except Corallorhiza and Wullschlaegelia both of which are subterranean taxa. Stomata are abaxial (ad- and abaxial in Aplectrum) and tetracytic (anomocytic in Calypso). Fiber bundles are absent in leaves of all taxa examined except Govenia tingens. Stegmata are present in leaves of only Cremastra and Govenia. Roots are velamentous, except in filiform roots of Wullschlaegelia. Vegetative anatomy supports a relationship between Wullschlaegelia and Corallorhiza but does not support the grouping of winter-leaved Aplectrum and Tipularia nor proposed …

The Correct Genus For The Jingle Bell Orchid, Harrisella Porrecta, Barbara Carlsward, Mark Whitten

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Old Acetogens, New Light, Steven Daniel, Harold Drake, Anita Gößner

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Acetogens utilize the acetyl-CoA Wood-Ljungdahl pathway as a terminal electron-accepting, energy-conserving, CO2-fixing process. The decades of research to resolve the enzymology of this pathway (1) preceded studies demonstrating that acetogens not only harbor a novel CO2-fixing pathway, but are also ecologically important, and (2) overshadowed the novel microbiological discoveries of acetogens and acetogenesis. The first acetogen to be isolated, Clostridium aceticum, was reported by Klaas Tammo Wieringa in 1936, but was subsequently lost. The second acetogen to be isolated, Clostridium thermoaceticum, was isolated by Francis Ephraim Fontaine and co-workers in 1942. C. thermoaceticum became the most extensively studied acetogen and …

Simulating The Effects Of Wetland Loss And Inter-Annual Variability On The Fitness Of Migratory Bird Species, Jill Deppe, James Smith

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Long-distance migratory shorebirds require wetland stopover sites where they can forage and deposit sufficient fat to complete their migration and, in the spring, reproduce. Conservation biologists are concerned that continental-scale reductions in wetland availability and quality due to human disturbance, climate change, and natural drought events are negatively impacting these species by eliminating critical stopovers along migratory flyways. We describe an individual-based migration model driven by remotely sensed land surface data, climate data assimilation models, and biological field data to examine the impact of changing environmental conditions on migration routes, temporal patterns, and fitness. We used an evolutionary programming approach …

Scale-Dependent Habitat Use By Fall Migratory Birds: Vegetation Architecture, Floristics, And Geographic Consistency, Jill L. Deppe, John T. Rotenberry

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Animal habitat selection is a central focus of ecology and conservation biology. Understanding habitat associations in migratory animals is particularly complicated because individuals have variable habitat requirements during the annual cycle, across their geographic range, along migratory routes, and at multiple spatial scales. We studied habitat associations of 16 fall Nearctic–Neotropical migratory land birds at two spatial scales at a stopover site along the northern Yucatan coast to examine scale-dependent habitat use, identify proximate cues shaping birds' distributions, and evaluate similarities in habitat use between our tropical stopover site and temperate sites. We addressed scale-dependent habitat associations in two ways, …

A Genetic Assessment Of The Red Squirrel In Illinois: Natives, Immigrants, Or Exotics?, William Beatty

Masters Theses

A small population ofred squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) has existed in Iroquois County, Illinois since the 1970' s. The origin of this population is unknown, but some accounts suggest they are the offspring of released red squirrels from Minnesota. Alternatively, they may be a remnant Illinois population or more recent immigrants from Indiana. Finally, this population could reflect a mixed ancestry of the above scenarios. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was utilized to determine the genetic relationships among red squirrel populations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. My results showed low levels of haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity in the Illinois sample. …

Beneficial Effects Of Estradiol Are Mediated Through Apoe, Aseem Hussain

Masters Theses

Estradiol is the primary premenopausal hormone circulating in women. It is a powerful hormone in the female body since it sends signals to the brain, regulates ovulation and menstrual cycle and acts on the nervous syste~ heart, breast and many other tissues in the body. However all estradiol production is stopped after menopause. Post menopausal women can develop a host of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. If the onset of progressive dementia is after menopause during loss of estradiol, it seems logical to assume that the lack of estradiol should have a big role to play in the pathogenesis …

Tracing Sperm In Multiply-Mated Female Anastrepha Suspensa, (Diptera:Tephridae), Preeti Dhakal

Masters Theses

Anastrepha suspensa females have four different sites of sperm storage in their reproductive tract, may mate with more than one male, and store sperm in differing amounts in each organ after copulation. In order to study the dynamics of sperm storage patterns and subsequent paternity outcomes, a method was developed for both genotyping and quantifying sperm in the spermathecae. Spermathecae were isolated and sonicated to remove maternal cells, and subsequently crushed between two microslides to release sperm from the capsule. After DNA isolation, microsatellite loci could be amplified by PCR for fragment analysis. A newly developed method was then used …

Artificial Riffles As A Stream Remediation Technique, Bethany S. Harrington

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Seed Source On Vegetative And Reproductive Performance Of Three Common Prairie Grasses Common In Grassland Restoration, Matt Burmeister

Masters Theses

Though tallgrass prairie once covered 250 million acres of the midwestem U.S, now less than one percent· of this original area is left. In recent years the restoration and reconstruction of tallgrass prairie has become more popular throughout the prairie region. There is evidence that local and distant populations may both be practical seed sources for ecological restoration projects. To address this basic issue in restoration, I tested the how performance of three grass species from different locations was affected by the distance from the restored area. Three species, Andropogon gerardii, Sorghastrum nutans and Panicum virgatum, of perennial grasses common …

Influence Of Fluvial Geomorphology On Fish Assemblage Structure Within An Agriculturally Impacted Watershed, Jeffrey D. Fore

Masters Theses

Warmwater stream fish assemblages are often considered limited by instream habitat availability. Thus, much current research has focused on determining habitat features that limit the abundance and persistence of stream fishes. These studies provide valuable information to managers who are concerned with increasing species abundance and persistence, but they may not provide information on the processes structuring the stream fish community. To address this issue, we hypothesized that stream geomorphology differed among stream sizes and types (i.e., channelized vs. unchannelized streams) and that the fish assemblages associated with each geomorphic type would be unique. Fish assemblages were sampled and geomorphic …

Long-Term Functional Trait Dynamics In Abandoned Agricultural Fields, Timothy A. Rye

Masters Theses

A fundamental question of plant succession is whether species within different successional stages differ in terms of functional traits as changes in community-level traits reflect changes in plant strategies over time. Although there are many studies that focus on that question, researchers have not studied the long-term dynamics of those traits within plant communities in depth. We used data from a 49-year study of old-field succession (the Buell-Small Succession Study) to assess the dynamics of important functional traits (height, seed mass, specific leaf area) and compared their dynamics among life forms and between native and non-native species. We assessed communitylevel …

Foraging Site Selection In Prairie Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis C. Calligaster): An Experimental Approach, Angela M. Fornell

Masters Theses

A critical component to a predator’s survival is the choice of foraging sites that yield enough predatory success to meet energetic demands. To elucidate cues used to select foraging sites, I examined foraging site selection in Prairie Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis c. calligaster), a generalist species whose foraging mode is flexible. My objectives were to determine: the pattern of foraging site selection; the importance of certain cues that kingsnakes use when selecting foraging sites; and, whether or not kingsnakes adjust their foraging patterns in response to alterations in the microhabitat. I tested subjects in a large experimental arena under several treatment conditions …

Terrestrial Macrofungi Of Old-Growth Prairie Groves, Vincent P. Hustad

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and contrast the communities of terrestrial macrofungi of Brownfield and Trelease Woods, Champaign Co., IL; old-growth prairie groves isolated for> 120 years. This study represents the first known analysis of fungal communities in old-growth prairie grove ecosystems in the Midwestern United States, and provides an excellent opportunity to characterize the fungal biodiversity of established old-growth reference communities for comparisons with other sites, both local and distant. Fungal communities were sampled during the fall fruiting seasons of 2006 and 2007 using a plot frequency study of fungal abundance. Several estimators of species richness …

Correlating Phytoplankton Assemblages With Water Quality In Illinois Lakes And Reservoirs: Validating Models Based On Historical Data, Jason D. Allen

Masters Theses

In the last two decades management and monitoring efforts in freshwater systems has shifted from point source pollutants to non-point source pollutants and environmental modification. Long term, large scale sampling projects necessitated by such a shift often are infeasible due to logistical, cost, and time constraints.

In recent years fish and benthic macroinvertebrate indices of biological integrity (IBI's) have been used to survey the quality of flowing (lotic) water systems, which have drastically reduced sampling time and facilitated large scale monitoring projects. However, it is unlikely that these could be adapted to lentic systems. This study was undertaken in an …

The Impact Of Climate On The Leaf Characteristics Of Genus Fraxinus, Brian W. Craven

Masters Theses

Fraxinus (ash) has six species across eastern North America, five of which are found in Illinois (F. americana, F. pennsylvanica, F. nigra, F. quadrangulata, F. profimda). It is also threatened by the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) (BAB). Are climate differences across a north-south distance of 600 km great enough to create differences in the morphological characteristics of Fraxinus species? Studying latitudinal variation in the species of Fraxinus would reveal the impact of climate on the leaf characteristics of a genus of trees which extend over a considerable portion of the continent. The objectives of this study were to determine …

Evaluation Of The Oxalate-Consuming Activities Of Probiotic Microorganisms, Alexandra E.C. Baluka

Masters Theses

This study identifies the oxalate-consuming capabilities of mixtures of probiotic microorganisms, present as commercial probiotics, as well as in seventeen pure cultures of probiotic microorganisms. Probiotics are sold commercially as powders, tablets, and supplements of live microorganisms that, when taken in large amounts, confer a health benefit to the host. Increased levels of urinary oxalate coincide with the formation of kidney stones, so this study sought to identify organisms capable of oxalate consumption that could potentially be manufactured for those suffering from calcium oxalate kidney stones. This study determined that consumption of oxalate was not directly tied to active growth …

Mating Bias In The Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis Invicta, Kendra Carroll

Masters Theses

The two social forms in the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, are believed to be governed by the expression of one specific gene. This gene, known as Gp-9, is responsible for the production of general protein-9, thought to be a pheromone binding protein. Among the social aspects thought to be controlled by this locus is reproduction. Many aspects of breeding within and between the two colonial forms have been investigated over the past years since in introduction of this species to the United States. In this study, several features of the currently accepted model were examined. Newlymated queens were …

Evaluating The Illinois Stream Valley Segment Model As An Effective Management Tool, Stephen S. Warrner

Masters Theses

Stream habitat assessment procedures have been used to monitor logical potential, habitat restoration, and determine anthropogenic impacts on streams. In the past, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) have determined which stream reaches to sample habitat quality based on historical data, accessibility, and whether or not a reach is representative of an area. To develop a consistent and unbiased procedure for choosing sampling locations, the IDNR and INHS have proposed a technique by which watersheds are divided into homogeneous stream segments called valley segments. Valley segments within each watershed are determined by …

Spatial And Ecological Patterns Of Tent Location In The Eastern Tent Caterpillar, Malacosoma Americana (Lepidoptera:Lasiocampidae), Jennifer Pleasant

Masters Theses

The eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) is a widely studied social caterpillar. The nests (i.e. tents) of the tent caterpillar are most frequently found on Black Cherry trees (Prunus serotina). However, dispersions of tents are often clumped with one cherry tree having five or more tent caterpillar nests in it and another cherry tree 3 meters away having only one nest, or none at all. I tried to determine why this happens. Because of the short field season, much of the research on the caterpillars has been done in the laboratory. I tried to determine host selection …