Biology Commons^™

Transcriptome Analyses In Bv2 Microglial Cells Following Treatment With Amino-Terminal Fragments Of Apolipoprotein E, Tanner B. Pollock, Giovan N. Cholico, Tarun Suresh, Erica S. Stewart, Madyson M. Mccarthy, Troy T. Rohn

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the fact that harboring the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele represents the single greatest risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the exact mechanism by which ApoE4 contributes to disease progression remains unknown. Recently, we demonstrated that a 151 amino-terminal fragment of ApoE4 (nApoE4_1–151) localizes within the nucleus of microglia in the human AD brain and traffics to the nucleus causing toxicity in BV2 microglia cells. In the present study, we examined in detail what genes may be affected following treatment by nApoE4_1–151. Transcriptome analyses in BV2 microglial cells following sublethal treatment with nApoE4 …

Investigation Of An Elevational Gradient Reveals Strong Differences Between Bacterial And Eukaryotic Communities Coinhabiting Nepenthes Phytotelmata, Kadeem J. Gilbert, Leonora S. Bittleston, Mark Arcebal K. Naive, Anthony E. Kiszewski, Perry Archival C. Buenavente, David J. Lohman, Naomi E. Pierce

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Elevation is an important determinant of ecological community composition. It integrates several abiotic features and leads to strong, repeatable patterns of community structure, including changes in the abundance and richness of numerous taxa. However, the influence of elevational gradients on microbes is understudied relative to plants and animals. To compare the influence of elevation on multiple taxa simultaneously, we sampled phytotelm communities within a tropical pitcher plant (Nepenthes mindanaoensis) along a gradient from 400 to 1200 m a.s.l. We use a combination of metabarcoding and physical counts to assess diversity and richness of bacteria, micro-eukaryotes, and arthropods, and …

A Metanalysis Of Sequences Of Vascular Plants In The World’S Biodiversity Hotspots With A Special Section On Madagascar, John Michael Adrian Wojahn

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Humans have become a major factor in reshaping the Earth’s biosphere. One of the major effects of human changes to the environment is an increase in the rate of species extinction as compared to background rates. Biodiversity hotspots are areas whose species assemblages are very rich (50% of the world’s plants and 42% of land vertebrates) yet very threatened with extinction ( > 70% habitat destruction), and which ought to be foci for conservation efforts. The intense peril in which the flora of these endangered regions are requires an equally intense response from the scientific community. This study investigated the benefits …

Low Intensity Vibrations Augment Mesenchymal Stem Cell Proliferation And Differentiation Capacity During In Vitro Expansion, Guniz Bas, Stacie Loisate, Stephanie F. Hudon, Kali Woods, Eric J. Hayden, Xinzhu Pu, Richard Beard, Julia T. Oxford, Gunes Uzer

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A primary component of exercise, mechanical signals, when applied in the form of low intensity vibration (LIV), increases mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) osteogenesis and proliferation. While it is generally accepted that exercise effectively combats the deleterious effects of aging in the musculoskeletal system, how long-term exercise affects stem cell aging, which is typified by reduced proliferative and differentiative capacity, is not well explored. As a first step in understanding the effect of long-term application of mechanical signals on stem cell function, we investigated the effect of LIV during in vitro expansion of MSCs. Primary MSCs were subjected to either a …

Quantifying The Relative Importance Of Variation In Predation And The Environment For Species Coexistence, Lauren G. Shoemaker, Allison K. Barner, Leonora S. Bittleston, Ashley I. Teufel

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Coexistence and food web theory are two cornerstones of the long‐standing effort to understand how species coexist. Although competition and predation are known to act simultaneously in communities, theory and empirical study of these processes continue to be developed largely independently. Here, we integrate modern coexistence theory and food web theory to simultaneously quantify the relative importance of predation and environmental fluctuations for species coexistence. We first examine coexistence in a theoretical, multitrophic model, adding complexity to the food web using machine learning approaches. We then apply our framework to a stochastic model of the rocky intertidal food web, partitioning …

How Water Level And Irrigation Practices Affect Waterbird Community, Nesting, And Foraging Habitat Use On The Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Jamie L. Burke

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Loss of habitat continues to threaten all bird populations. Despite efforts for conservation of wetlands, waterbirds continue to face habitat threats especially in western North America where water resources are limited across the landscape. The White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) is a colonial nesting waterbird of conservation concern that builds nests in emergent vegetation of freshwater wetlands throughout the western United States. An ibis breeding colony site located at the Blue Creek Wetland complex on Duck Valley Indian Reservation may face habitat threats in the future due to plans intended to increase irrigation water use efficiency. Plans include manipulation …

Clinical Trials In Alzheimer’S Disease: A Hurdle In The Path Of Remedy, Alexandra E. Oxford, Erica S. Stewart, Troy T. Rohn

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human clinical trials seek to ameliorate the disease states and symptomatic progression of illnesses that, as of yet, are largely untreatable according to clinical standards. Ideally, clinical trials test “disease-modifying drugs,” i.e., therapeutic agents that specifically modify pathological features or molecular bases of the disease and would presumably have a large impact on disease progression. In the case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), however, this approach appears to have stalled progress in the successful development of clinically useful therapies. For the last 25 years, clinical trials involving AD have centered on beta-amyloid (Aβ) and the Aβ hypothesis of …

Relevance Of Individual And Environmental Drivers Of Movement Of Golden Eagles, Maitreyi Sur

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

An animal’s movement is expected to be governed by an interplay between goals determined by its internal state and energetic costs associated with navigating through the external environment. Understanding this ecological process is challenging when an animal moves in two dimensions and even more difficult for birds that move in a third dimension. To understand the dynamic interaction between the internal state of an animal and the variable external environment, we evaluated hypotheses explaining association of different covariates of movement and the trade-offs birds face as they make behavioural decisions in a fluctuating landscape. We used ~870 000 GPS telemetry …

Context-Dependent Dynamics Lead To The Assembly Of Functionally Distinct Microbial Communities, Leonora S. Bittleston, Matti Gralka, Gabriel E. Levanthal, Itzhak Mizrahi, Otto X. Cordero

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Niche construction through interspecific interactions can condition future community states on past ones. However, the extent to which such history dependency can steer communities towards functionally different states remains a subject of active debate. Using bacterial communities collected from wild pitchers of the carnivorous pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, we test the effects of history on composition and function across communities assembled in synthetic pitcher plant microcosms. We find that the diversity of assembled communities is determined by the diversity of the system at early, pre-assembly stages. Species composition is also contingent on early community states, not only because of …

Tropical Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes) Act As Ecological Filters By Altering Properties Of Their Fluid Microenvironments, Kadeem J. Gilbert, Leonora S. Bittleston, Wenfei Tong, Naomi E. Pierce

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Characteristics of host species can alter how other, interacting species assemble into communities by acting as ecological filters. Pitchers of tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes) host diverse communities of aquatic arthropods and microbes in nature. This plant genus exhibits considerable interspecific diversity in morphology and physiology; for example, different species can actively control the pH of their pitcher fluids and some species produce viscoelastic fluids. Our study investigated the extent to which Nepenthes species differentially regulate pitcher fluid traits under common garden conditions, and the effects that these trait differences had on their associated communities. Sixteen species of Nepenthes …

Operational Large-Area Land-Cover Mapping: An Ethiopia Case Study, Trevor Caughlin

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Knowledge of land cover and land use nationally is a prerequisite of many studies on drivers of land change, impacts on climate, carbon storage and other ecosystem services, and allows for sufficient planning and management. Despite this, many regions globally do not have accurate and consistent coverage at the national scale. This is certainly true for Ethiopia. Large-area land-cover characterization (LALCC), at a national scale is thus an essential first step in many studies of land-cover change, and yet is itself problematic. Such LALCC based on remote-sensing image classification is associated with a spectrum of technical challenges such as data …

Patterns And Mechanisms Of Heterogeneous Breeding Distribution Shifts Of North American Migratory Birds, Hanna M. Mccaslin, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is widespread evidence that species distributions are shifting in response to climate change. Warming temperatures and climate niche constraints are hypothesized drivers of northward shifts in temperate migratory bird breeding distributions, but heterogeneity in the direction of distribution shifts suggests that the climate niche hypothesis does not explain all changes in distributions. We propose that: 1) changes in migration costs and benefits related to dampened seasonal differences between breeding and winter areas, 2) sensitivity to supplemental cues that affect duration of migration and onset of reproduction, 3) a latitudinal mismatch-driven fitness gradient, or a combination of these drivers may …

Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of A Cholera Toxin-Based Staphylococcus Aureus Vaccine Against Bovine Intramammary Challenge, Hussain A. Alabdullah, Elise Overgaard, Danielle Scarbrough, Janet E. Williams, Omid Mohammad Mousa, Gary Dunn, Laura Bond, Mark A. Mcguire, Juliette K. Tinker

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a primary agent of bovine mastitis and a source of significant economic loss for the dairy industry. We previously reported antigen-specific immune induction in the milk and serum of dairy cows following vaccination with a cholera toxin A₂ and B subunit (CTA₂/B) based vaccine containing the iron-regulated surface determinant A (IsdA) and clumping factor A (ClfA) antigens of S. aureus (IsdA + ClfA-CTA₂/B). The goal of the current study was to assess the efficacy of this vaccine to protect against S. aureus infection after intramammary challenge. Six mid-lactation …

Pedigree Validation Using Genetic Markers In An Intensively-Managed Taonga Species, The Critically Endangered Kakī (Himantopus Novaezelandiae), Ashley Overbeek, Stephanie Galla, Liz Brown, Simon Cleland, Cody Thyne, Richard Maloney, Tammy Steeves

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many species recovery programmes use pedigrees to understand the genetic ancestry of individuals to inform conservation management. However, incorrect parentage assignment may limit the accuracy of these pedigrees and subsequent management decisions. This is especially relevant for pedigrees that include wild individuals, where misassignment may not only be attributed to human error, but also promiscuity (i.e. extra-pair parentage) or egg-dumping (i.e. brood parasitism). Here, we evaluate pedigree accuracy in the socially monogamous and critically endangered kakī (black stilt, Himantopus novaezelandiae) using microsatellite allele-exclusion analyses for 56 wild family groups across three breeding seasons (2014–2016, n= 340). We identified …

Gateway Scholarships In Biological Sciences: Year 3 Annual Report, Vicki Stieha, Julia Oxford, Amy Ulappa, Brittnee Earl, Jennifer Forbey, Laura Bond, Kevin Feris, Jocelyn Cullers

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes grant activities, progress toward goals, and broader impacts of the Gateway Scholars Program in the Boise State Department of Biological Sciences during the 2019-20 academic year.

Human-Carnivore Relations: Conflicts, Tolerance And Coexistence In The American West, Juan M. Requena-Mullor

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Carnivore and humans live in proximity due to carnivore recovery efforts and ongoing human encroachment into carnivore habitats globally. The American West is a region that uniquely exemplifies these human-carnivore dynamics, however, it is unclear how the research community here integrates social and ecological factors to examine human-carnivore relations. Therefore, strategies promoting human-carnivore coexistence are urgently needed. We conducted a systematic review on human-carnivore relations in the American West covering studies between 2000 and 2018. We first characterized human-carnivore relations across states of the American West. Second, we analyzed similarities and dissimilarities across states in terms of coexistence, tolerance, number …

Integrating Social Dimensions Into Spatial Connectivity Planning For Grizzly Bears, Abigail Sage

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In anthropogenic landscapes, which prevail globally, preserving key habitat corridors or routes between wildlife populations is vital for long-term species persistence. Animals moving through these corridors can encounter a number of barriers, including roads, fences, or other human land-uses. Additionally, people unwilling to cohabitate with wildlife can also kill animals considered nuisances or disturb animals in ways that reduce their fitness. The spatial patterns of human tolerance therefore play an important role in the efficacy of habitat corridors. Although there are large bodies of research on habitat corridors and human attitudes toward wildlife, studies that examine the spatial interaction of …

Integrating Anthropogenic Factors Into Regional-Scale Species Distribution Models: A Novel Application In The Imperiled Sagebrush Biome, Juan M. Requena-Mullor, Kaitlin C. Maguire, Douglas J. Shinneman, Timothy Trevor Caughlin

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Species distribution models (SDM) that rely on regional-scale environmental variables will play a key role in forecasting species occurrence in the face of climate change. However, in the Anthropocene, a number of local-scale anthropogenic variables, including wildfire history, land-use change, invasive species, and ecological restoration practices can override regional-scale variables to drive patterns of species distribution. Incorporating these human-induced factors into SDMs remains a major research challenge, in part because spatial variability in these factors occurs at fine scales, rendering prediction over regional extents problematic. Here, we used big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) as a model species to …

Where To Forage When Afraid: Does Perceived Risk Impair Use Of The Foodscape?, Samantha P.H. Dwinnell, Hall Sawyer, Jill E. Randall, Jeffery L. Beck, Jennifer S. Forbey, Gary L. Fralick, Kevin L. Monteith

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The availability and quality of forage on the landscape constitute the foodscape within which animals make behavioral decisions to acquire food. Novel changes to the foodscape, such as human disturbance, can alter behavioral decisions that favor avoidance of perceived risk over food acquisition. Although behavioral changes and population declines often coincide with the introduction of human disturbance, the link(s) between behavior and population trajectory are difficult to elucidate. To identify a pathway by which human disturbance may affect ungulate populations, we tested the Behaviorally Mediated Forage‐Loss Hypothesis, wherein behavioral avoidance is predicted to reduce use of available forage adjacent to …

Phylogenomics Resolves Major Relationships And Reveals Significant Diversification Rate Shifts In The Evolution Of Silk Moths And Relatives, J. R. Barber

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Silkmoths and their relatives constitute the ecologically and taxonomically diverse superfamily Bombycoidea, which includes some of the most charismatic species of Lepidoptera. Despite displaying spectacular forms and diverse ecological traits, relatively little attention has been given to understanding their evolution and drivers of their diversity. To begin to address this problem, we created a new Bombycoidea-specific Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) probe set and sampled up to 571 loci for 117 taxa across all major lineages of the Bombycoidea, with a newly developed DNA extraction protocol that allows Lepidoptera specimens to be readily sequenced from pinned natural history collections.

Results: …

Methodological Advances For Understanding Social Connectivity And Environmental Implications In Multi-Use Landscapes, Matthew Clark

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Integrated social-ecological systems research is challenging; complicated feedback and interactions across scales in multi-use landscapes are difficult to decouple. Novel methods and innovative data sources are needed to advance social-ecological systems research. In this thesis, we use network science as a means of explicitly assessing feedback between social and ecological systems, and internet search data to better predict visitation in protected areas. This thesis seeks to provide empirical examples of emerging social-ecological systems science methods as a precedent for resource managers on-the-ground, as well as extending the line of scientific inquiry on the subject

In the first chapter of this …

Old Enemies With New Problems?: Investigating The Ecological Relationship Between Ridgway’S Hawk And The Parasitic Nest Fly Philornis Pici, Christine Deegear Hayes

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Modern conservation efforts tend not to focus on individual species, but rather on the entire ecosystem of a species in peril. Many ecological factors can affect a species’ ability to maintain healthy populations. Parasites, which derive nutrients at the expense of their hosts, can reduce host fitness and limit population growth, acting as biological controls in healthy ecosystems. The negative impacts of parasites on their hosts can be exacerbated by climate change and anthropogenic land-use practices in ways that may limit recovery or drive host species to extinction. Introduced parasitic nest flies in the genus Philornis (Diptera: Muscidae) are threatening …

Genetic Variability Of Cultivars Shape Biochemical Profiles In A Bioenergy Cropping System, Megan Kelly-Slatten

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The largest terrestrial carbon (C) pool on Earth is the soil, surpassing both biotic and atmospheric C pools combined. The majority of C stabilized in soil is root-derived, and root derived C is the preferred food source for the soil microbial community. Recent studies have indicated that the perennial bioenergy crops Panicum Virgatum (hereafter: switchgrass) and Andropogon Gerardii (hereafter: big bluestem) accumulate significant amounts of soil C owing to their extensive root systems, and that soil C accumulation rates are driven by inter- and intra-specific variability in plant traits. While soil C accumulation in the short term (i.e. after two …

Seed Predation By Owyhee Harvester Ants And The Potential Of Seed Introductions In Recovery Efforts For Slickspot Peppergrass, Jennifer A. Brown

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum) is a rare plant endemic to the sagebrush-steppe habitat in southwestern Idaho. Within sagebrush-steppe, the plant is restricted to microsites known as “slick spots”– shallow depressions of soil characterized by distinct clay layers and surface water retention that is higher than that of surrounding areas. Having one of the highest extirpation rates among rare plant taxa in Idaho, and considering its unique habitat requirements, limited range, and declining numbers, land managers and conservationists have voiced concern regarding the species’ long-term viability. While range-wide declines in slickspot peppergrass have been attributed largely to the loss …

Correcting Forensic Dna Errors, Greg Hampikian

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

DNA mixture interpretation can produce opposing conclusions by qualified forensic analysts, even within the same laboratory. The long-delayed publication of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) study of 109 North American crime laboratories in this journal demonstrates this most clearly. This latest study supports earlier work that shows common methods such as the Combined Probability of Inclusion (CPI) have wrongly included innocent people as contributors to DNA mixtures.The 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report concluded,“In summary, the interpretation of complex DNA mixtures with the CPI statistic has been an inadequately specified—and thus inappropriately subjective—method. …

Dietary Plasticity In A Specialist Predator, The Gyrfalcon (Falco Rusticolus): New Insights Into Diet During Brood Rearing, Bryce W. Robinson, Travis L. Booms, Marc J. Bechard, David L. Anderson

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Climate and landscape change are expected to affect species’ distributions and interactions, with potentially harmful consequences for specialist predators. Availability of optimal prey can affect reproductive success in raptors, especially in the Arctic, where dramatic differences in prey availability occur both within and between years. However, behavioral responses of dietary specialist, resident predators such as Gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) to changes in prey availability remain poorly understood. To improve understanding of how climate-driven changes in prey availability may affect diet of avian predators in the Arctic, we characterized Gyrfalcon diet on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, in 2014 and 2015 …

Genotype Network Intersections Promote Evolutionary Innovation, Devin P. Bendixsen, James Collet, Bjørn Østman, Eric J. Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Evolutionary innovations are qualitatively novel traits that emerge through evolution and increase biodiversity. The genetic mechanisms of innovation remain poorly understood. A systems view of innovation requires the analysis of genotype networks—the vast networks of genetic variants that produce the same phenotype. Innovations can occur at the intersection of two different genotype networks. However, the experimental characterization of genotype networks has been hindered by the vast number of genetic variants that need to be functionally analyzed. Here, we use high-throughput sequencing to study the fitness landscape at the intersection of the genotype networks of two catalytic RNA molecules (ribozymes). We …

Evolution Of The Caribbean Species Of Columnea (Gesneriaceae) With An Emphasis On The Jamaican Species, James F. Smith, Maggie T.-Y. Ooi, Lacie J. Schulte, Keron C. St.E. Campbell, Judeen Meikle, John L. Clark

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Premise of research. Biogeography has improved understanding of evolution and diversification of organisms on both continental and island systems. One complicated island group in terms of geological history and biogeographic pattern is the Caribbean island system. A comparison across taxonomic groups does not result in overarching patterns for this group of islands. Columnea has the greatest number of species endemic to the Caribbean for any genus in Gesneriaceae that is not mostly endemic to the Caribbean with 16 species. Thirteen of these species are found on Jamaica, the remaining three each endemic to Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. In …

The Endosymbiotic Gut Fungus Zancudomyces Culisetae Influences Transstadial Transmission Of Host-Associated Microbiota In The Yellow Fever Mosquito (Aedes Aegypti), Jonas Frankel-Bricker

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Mosquitoes are vectors for a variety of human pathogens and have a significant impact on human health worldwide. There is growing evidence that host-associated microbiota influence mosquito vector competence for certain viruses. Transstadial transmission of bacteria from larvae through pupae to adults could affect these interactions, though further studies are needed to fully unravel the mechanisms involved. Current microbiome research primarily focuses on bacterial communities, whereas the potential role endosymbiotic gut fungi have in transstadial transmission dynamics remains largely unknown. Trichomycetes is an ecological group of endosymbiotic microfungi that colonize the digestive tracts of arthropod hosts, including the Yellow Fever …

Reduced-Impact Logging For Climate Change Mitigation (Ril-C) Can Halve Selective Logging Emissions From Tropical Forests, Anand Roopsind

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Selective logging causes at least half of the emissions from tropical forest degradation. Reduced-impact logging for climate (RIL-C) is proposed as a way to maintain timber production while minimizing forest damage. Here we synthesize data from 61 coordinated field-based surveys of logging impacts in seven countries across the tropics. We estimate that tropical selective logging emitted 834 Tg CO₂ in 2015, 6% of total tropical greenhouse gas emissions. Felling, hauling, and skidding caused 59%, 31%, and 10% of these emissions, respectively. We suggest that RIL-C incentive programs consider a feasible target carbon impact factor of 2.3 Mg emitted per …