Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Appendix C: General Data, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College, Colby Environmental Assessment Team, Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Togus Pond (2004)

No abstract provided.

Fall Data Report, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College, Colby Environmental Assessment Team, Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Togus Pond (2004)

No abstract provided.

Total Phosphorus, Colby College, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College, Colby Environmental Assessment Team, Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Togus Pond (2004)

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Water Quality, Colby College, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Togus Pond (2004)

No abstract provided.

Water Quality Results From Togus Pond, Colby College, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Togus Pond (2004)

No abstract provided.

K+- Induced Dilation Of Cremasteric Arterioles Involves Na+/K+Atpase And Inward Rectifier K+ Channels, Wendy Burns

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible mechanisms involved in cremasteric arteriolar dilation as a result of increased concentrations of ([K⁺]_o) extracellular potassium. Many other studies suggested that Na⁺/K⁺ ATPase or K_IR channels are responsible for potassium-induced vasodilation in other systems (2, 12, 22, 40, 46, 52, 16, 17, 25, 33, 34, 85, 99, 151). However, these studies show only partial inhibition of dilation as a result of independent blockageof each mechanism. The hypothesis of this study was that both mechanisms contribute to potassium-induced dilation seen in cremasteric arterioles. …

Regulation Of Na,K-Atpase By Plms, The Phospholemman-Like Protein From Shark: Molecular Cloning, Expression, Cellular Distribution And Functional Effects Of Plms, Yasser A. Mahmmoud, Gordon Cramb, Arvid B. Maunsbach, Christopher P. Cutler, Lara Meischke, Flemming Cornelius

Biology: Faculty Publications

In Na,K-ATPase membrane preparations from shark rectal glands, we have previously identified an FXYD domain-containing protein, phospholemman-like protein from shark, PLMS. This protein was shown to associate and modulate shark Na,K-ATPase activity in vitro. Here we describe the complete coding sequence, expression, and cellular localization of PLMS in the rectal gland of the shark Squalus acanthias. The mature protein contained 74 amino acids, including the N-terminal FXYD motif and a C-terminal protein kinase multisite phosphorylation motif. The sequence is preceded by a 20 amino acid candidate cleavable signal sequence. Immunogold labeling of the Na,K-ATPase …

Metabolic Responses Of Shorebird Chicks To Cold Stress: Hysteresis Of Cooling And Warming Phases, Robert Ricklefs, Joseph Williams

Biology Department Faculty Works

We developed a protocol for determining the maximum rate of oxygen consumption of shorebird chicks (Scolopacidae and Charadriidae) in response to cold challenge. We first subjected the chicks to gradually decreasing temperatures until their metabolism peaked and began to decrease. We ended the cooling phase of a trial when a chick’s body temperature Tb had declined typically to 32–34°C. After this point, we gradually increased the temperature in the metabolism chamber until normal Tb values and thermoneutral resting metabolism were restored. We refer to this cycle as the down–up (DU) protocol. We estimated instantaneous oxygen consumption (V . O∑) using …

Algal Composition And Abundance In The Neuston Surface Micro Layer From A Lake And Pond In Virginia (U.S.A.), Lubomira Burchardt, Harold G. Marshall

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A comparative study was conducted that characterized the algae within the neuston, ca 2 mm below the surface, and the algae in the water column from two freshwater habitats. There were significant differences in total algal abundance and the abundance of diatoms, cyanoprokaryotes, and chlorophytes between the neuston and water column algae of these two regions during each season and at both sites. The pond neuston was dominated by chlorophytes, with total algal abundance ranging seasonally from 0.6 to 59.6 x 10^-3 cells ml^-1 compared to water column algal concentrations of 4.1 to 40.4 x 10-3 cells ml-1. …

Comparative Serological And Molecular Analysis Of Group Viii Spiroplasma From Australia And North America, April Carmita Murphy

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

Spiroplasma bacteria (Mollicutes: Spiroplasmataceae) are characterized by motility, helical morphology and are most frequently found in insect guts and phloem tubes of plants. Traditionally, Spiroplasma have been classified by serology. Recent work has generated 16S rDNA sequences that generally correlate with the serological findings. Although the serology and the 16S rDNA sequence analysis clearly classifies strains to the group level, they do not distinguish between strains within the same group. The goal of this project was to investigate the utility of the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region sequence as a means to distinguish these closely related strains.

We chose Group …

Mosquitoes, West Nile Virus, Attractants, Competition, Environmental Conditions, And Insecticide Resistance, Alan Bradley Wells

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

The six main objectives of this project were: 1) test for levels of West Nile Virus in mosquitoes collected at a Fulton County Recreational Facility, 2) assay various mosquito oviposition attractants on West Nile virus positive female mosquitoes, 3) test effects of distance between mosquito infusion attractants, 4) determine effects of study site location, treatment, and competition distances on mosquito collections, 5) test for any correlation between environmental factors and mosquito abundance, and 6) measure levels of enzymatic insecticide resistance present in species of female mosquitoes that tested positive for the presence of West Nile Virus. Ofthe two species that …

Evidence For An Epigenetic Mechanism By Which Hsp90 Acts As A Capacitor For Morphological Evolution, Vincent E. Sollars, Xiangyi Lu, Li Xiao, Xiaoyan Wang, Mark D. Garfinkel, Douglas M. Ruden

Biochemistry and Microbiology

Morphological alterations have been shown to occur in Drosophila melanogaster when function of Hsp90 (heat shock 0-kDa protein 1α, encoded by Hsp83) is compromised during development1. Genetic selection maintains the altered phenotypes in subsequent generations1. Recent experiments have shown, however, that phenotypic variation still occurs in nearly isogenic recombinant inbred strains of Arabidopsis thaliana2. Using a sensitized isogenic D. melanogaster strain, iso-KrIf-1, we confirm this finding and present evidence supporting an epigenetic mechanism for Hsp90’s capacitor function, whereby reduced activity of Hsp90 induces a heritably altered chromatin state. The altered chromatin state is evidenced by ectopic expression …

Comparison Of Tnf-A Levels Produced By Macrophages Treated With Brucella Abortus And Escherichia Coli Lps, Tajie Harris

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Murine Epidermal Cell Antigen (Skn)-Directed Autoimmunity Induced By Transfer Of Cd4+ T Cells, Susan H. Jackman, Shivaleela Keerthy, Giselle Perry

Biochemistry and Microbiology

While pathogenic T cells have been identified for several diseases with epithelial cell damage, an autoimmune T cell-mediated response targeted against a known keratinocyte antigen has not been reported. Previously we described an autoimmune response directed to the mouse epidermal cell antigens, Skn. For our murine model, primed Skn-immune lymphocytes are adoptively transferred to recipients, which develop lesions at the site of mild skin trauma. In this study we investigated the nature of the autoimmune component of the Skn response. A time-course study demonstrated a relationship between the number of primed Sknimmune cells injected and the severity of skin lesions …

Serotyping Group B Streptococci In A Small Community Hospital: An Analysis Of Distribution And Site Of Isolation, Jennifer M. Smith, Jason A. Rexroth, David G. Chaffin, Susan H. Jackman

Biochemistry and Microbiology

Objective: To determine the prevalence and site of isolation of different serotypes of group B streptococcus (GBS) colonization or infection at a small community hospital.

Methods: GBS isolates were obtained from a small community hospital and were then serotyped as la, Ib, II, III, IV, V or non-typeable. Hospital records were reviewed for patient sex, age and pregnancy status as well as the site of GBS isolation.

Results: GBS serotypes Ia, III and V were most common and accounted for over 60% of the total number of isolates. Serotype Ia was most prevalent in reproductive-age females, while serotypes V and …

The Effect Of Cytosine Methylation On The Structure And Geometry Of The Holliday Junction: The Structure Of D(Ccggtacm5 Cgg) At 1.5 Å Resolution, Jeff Vargason, P. Shing Ho

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

No abstract provided.

Behavioral And Reproductive Aspects Of Captive Maxwell's Duiker (Cephalophus Mawellii) Husbandry, Janet Mcneill Mackinnon

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

Female Maxwell's duikers (Cephalophus maxwellii) were studied at the Wildlife Survival Center on St. Catherine's Island, Georgia. The objectives were to quantify the effects of housing on activity budgets and progesterone cycling. Four animals were studied across two housing situations: housed individually versus housed in a grouped setting. Behavioral observations revealed no significant change in access to resources, rumination, or repetitive behaviors, once animals were housed together. Fecal samples were collected in order to determine levels of progesterone through radioimmunoassay (RIA). Fluctuations in progesterone levels revealed no clear estrous cycles. Animals showed less variability in progesterone levels and …

Glass Capillary Tube Feeding: A Method For Infecting Nymphal Ixodes Scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) With The Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia Burgdorferi, Anne H. Broadwater, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Wayne L. Hynes, Shane Ceraul, Aravinda M. De Silva

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

We evaluated an artificial capillary feeding method to infect nymphal Ixodes scapularis (Say) ticks with Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Thirty to 70% of the nymphs were infected after feeding for 2.5 h from glass capillary tubes filled with a solution of spirochetes. Capillary infection was stable and persisted in the nymphs for at least 10 d after feeding. Capillary feeding also maintained natural vector competence patterns because I. scapularis ticks acquired infection unlike Dermacentor variablis (Say), which did not become infected. Capillary infected I. scapularis nymphs were capable of transmitting the infection to naive mice …

Inferring And Testing Hypotheses Of Cladistic Character Dependence By Using Character Compatibility, F. Robin O’Keefe, Peter J. Wagner

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

The notion that two characters evolve independently is of interest for two reasons. First, theories of biological integration often predict that change in one character requires complementary change in another. Second, character independence is a basic assumption of most phylogenetic inference methods, and dependent characters might confound attempts at phylogenetic inference. Previously proposed tests of correlated character evolution require a model phylogeny and therefore assume that nonphylogenetic correlation has a negligible effect on initial tree construction. This paper develops “tree-free” methods for testing the independence of cladistic characters. These methods can test the character independence model as a hypothesis before …

Characterization And Regulation Of Skn-Directed Autoimmune Skin Lesions, Pamela Jane Staton

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In the Skn model of autoimmunity, pathogenic T cells sensitized to Skn epidermal antigens (Skn-immune spleen cells or SIS cells) elicited disease in the form of skin lesions when adoptively transferred into shaved immunoincompetent syngeneic adult recipients (‘lesion-forming animals’) while concomitant injection of immunoregulatory normal spleen cells at twice the concentration (2 x normal spleen cells or 2XNS cells) of SIS cells significantly lessened lesion development (‘lesion-controlling animals’) by Day 7 post cell transfer. In a time-course RT-PCR cytokine analysis of skin from lesion-forming and lesion-controlling animals, IL-7 mRNA was significantly elevated in lesion-controlling skin on Day 7 while no …

A Crystallographic Map Of The Transition From B-Dna To A-Dna, Jeff Vargason, Keith Henderson, P. Shing Ho

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Antimetabolites On Sclerotium Rolfsii Growth And Oxalic Acid Production, Ezikiel Okafor-Agilo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

Group Viii Spiroplasma Of Costa Rica, Kimberly M. Stewart

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

Spiroplasma bacteria isolates are classified or identified through a series of serological tests that normally consists of screening, one-way deformation tests, cloning, antisera production, and reciprocal deformation tests. Serological tests on the spiroplasmas are followed by molecular analysis. The standard molecular analysis used for spiroplasmas has been 16S rRNA sequencing. The primary goal ofmy research was to evaluate serologically Group VIII spiroplasmas isolated from tropical Costa Rican tabanids (Diptera: Tabanidae) and to compare them to the temperate North American Group VIII spiroplasmas. A secondary goal was to evaluate both the temperate and tropical Group VIII strains by sequencing the 16S-23S …

An Investigation Of Captive Florida Manatee (Trichecus Manatus Latirostris) Behavior And Social Interactions, Jennifer Sadler Young

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

Human impacts such as pollution, habitat alteration, and boating have caused many injuries and deaths of the Florida manatee, Trichechus manutus latirostris. Rehabilitation centers have been established in Florida to help return sick or injured manatees back to the wild. Manatees that are released back to the wild after undergoing rehabilitation in captivity might lose some of their abilities to survive in the wild. A factor that might alter behavior in captive individuals was examined by determining if length of time spent in captivity influenced the behavior of manatees during rehabilitation. Even though all facilities follow similar guidelines, invariable …

The Prevalence Of Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiae In Ixodes Scapularis Ticks In Southeastern Georgia, Heather Anne Merten

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) is a newly emerging, tick-borne zoonosis in North America. The agent that causes HGE is very similar to Ehrlichia phagocytophilia and Ehrlichia equi, but has yet to be classified as a separate species.

This study was carried out in order to determine the prevalence rate of HGE infection in blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) in insular and mainland sites in southeastern Georgia using nested PCR techniques. Four locations were studied representing 2 barrier islands and 2 mainland sites. We hypothesized that areas that have low levels of human disturbance and are somewhat isolated will …

A Comparative Study Of The Reproductive Biology Of Sympatric Morning Glories (Ipomoea-Convolvulaceae), Dexter R. Sowell Ii

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

Despite the astounding diversity of flowering plants and of mobile organisms that serve as pollinators, sympatric co-flowering plants can potentially share pollinators with each other. This places two selection pressures on plants. First, plants compete for pollinators to visit their flowers and secondly, entice pollinators to be faithful (specialized) and visit only other members of their species. I tested whether sympatric co-flowering plants reduced their selection pressures via temporal partitioning or differential attraction of pollinators using six closely related, sympatric co-flowering morning glories (Ipomoea-Convolvulaceae).

Diurnal flower phenology tightly overlapped, which did not facilitate temporal partitioning of pollinators. However, …

Molecular Cloning And Analysis Of The Modification Genes Of The Kpnbl Restriction- Modification System Of Klebsiella Pneumoniae Strain Gm236, Vernon Robert Chin

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The KpnBl restriction-modification (R-M) system has been recognized for some time in Klebsiella pneumoniae strain GM236. Previously the restriction subunit (hsdR_kpmBI) was cloned and sequenced, based on the sequence infonnation the KpnBl RM system was suspected to be either a type I or type III R-M system In this project the modification genes of KpnBl were cloned into a pMECA plasmid by using a modification expression method. The modification genes were identified on an 8.2 kb EcoRl fragment from a chromosomal library of the GM236 strain. The complete 8.2 kb fragment was sequenced and …

Test Of Intron Predictions Reveals Novel Splice Sites, Alternatively Spliced Mrnas And New Introns In Meiotically Regulated Genes Of Yeast, Carrie Davis, Leslie Grate, Marc Spingola, Manuel Ares

Biology Department Faculty Works

Correct identification of all introns is necessary to discern the protein-coding potential of a eukaryotic genome. The existence of most of the spliceosomal introns predicted in the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae remains unsupported by molecular evidence. We tested the intron predictions for 87 introns predicted to be present in non-ribosomal protein genes, more than a third of all known or suspected introns in the yeast genome. Evidence supporting 61 of these predictions was obtained, 20 predicted intron sequences were not spliced and six predictions identified an intron-containing region but failed to specify the correct splice sites, yielding a successful prediction …

Determining The Phylogenetic Relationships Among The Northern Pike (Esox Lucius), The Muskellunge (Esox Masquinongy), And The Silver Pike, Steven W. Foster

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Prioritization of taxa has become a necessity due to limited resources available for conservation. Conservation efforts are often concentrated on those threatened and endangered species with the highest taxonomic importance. The silver pike is a rare game fish, often accounting for less than 1% of a total pike population where it is found. Although silver pike are normally found in association with northern pike, they have distinct morphological characteristics and have not been shown to hybridize with the northern pike. Still, many fisheries biologists consider the silver pike to be a color variant of the northern pike, and to date …

The Holliday Junction In An Inverted Repeat Dna Sequence: Sequence Effects On The Structure Of Four-Way Junctions, Brandt F. Eichman, Jeff Vargason, Blaine H.M. Mooers, P. Shing Ho

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Holliday junctions are important structural intermediates in recombination, viral integration, and DNA repair. We present here the single-crystal structure of the inverted repeat sequence d(CCGGTACCGG) as a Holliday junction at the nominal resolution of 2.1 Å. Unlike the previous crystal structures, this DNA junction has B-DNA arms with all standard Watson–Crick base pairs; it therefore represents the intermediate proposed by Holliday as being involved in homologous recombination. The junction is in the stacked-X conformation, with two interconnected duplexes formed by coaxially stacked arms, and is crossed at an angle of 41.4° as a right-handed X. A sequence comparison with previous …