Biology Commons^™

Retinal Tissue Engineering Using Mouse Retinal Progenitor Cells And A Novel Biodegradable, Thin-Film Poly(E-Caprolactone) Nanowire Scaffold, Stephen Redenti, Sarah Tao, Jing Yang, Ping Gu, Henry Klassen, Sunita Saigal, Tejal Desai, Michael J. Young

Publications and Research

Retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) can be combined with nanostructured polymer scaffolds to generate compos- ite grafts in culture. One strategy for repair of diseased retinal tissue involves implantation of composite grafts of this type in the subretinal space. In the present study, mouse retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) were cultured on laminin- coated novel nanowire poly(e-caprolactone)(PCL) scaf- folds, and the survival, differentiation, and migration of these cells into the retina of C57bl/6 and rhodospsin −/−mouse retinal explants and transplant recipients were analyzed. RPCs were cultured on smooth PCL and both short (2.5μm) and long (27μ m) nanowire PCL scaffolds. Scaffolds with …

A Quantitative Synthesis Of The Medicinal Ethnobotany Of The Malinké Of Mali And The Asháninka Of Peru, With A New Theoretical Framework, Nathaniel Bletter

Publications and Research

Background: Although ethnomedically and taxonomically guided searches for new medicinal plants can improve the percentage of plants found containing active compounds when compared to random sampling, ethnobotany has fulfilled little of its promise in the last few decades to deliver a bounty of new, laboratory-proven medicinal plants and compounds. It is quite difficult to test, isolate, and elucidate the structure and mechanism of compounds from the plethora of new medicinal plant uses described each year with limited laboratory time and resources and the high cost of clinical trials of new drug candidates.

Methods: A new quantitative theoretical framework of mathematical …

Contrasting Infection Strategies In Generalist And Specialist Wasp Parasitoids Of Drosophila Melanogaster, Todd A. Schlenke, Jorge Morales, Shubha Govind, Andrew G. Clark

Publications and Research

Although host–parasitoid interactions are becoming well characterized at the organismal and cellular levels, much remains to be understood of the molecular bases for the host immune response and the parasitoids’ ability to defeat this immune response. Leptopilina boulardi and L. heterotoma, two closely related, highly infectious natural parasitoids of Drosophila melanogaster, appear to use very different infection strategies at the cellular level. Here, we further characterize cellular level differences in the infection characteristics of these two wasp species using newly derived, virulent inbred strains, and then use whole genome microarrays to compare the transcriptional response of Drosophila to each. While …

A Role For Sperm In Regulation Of Egg-Laying In The Nematode C. Elegans, Marie Mcgovern, Ling Yu, Mary Kosinski, David Greenstein, Cathy Savage-Dunn

Publications and Research

Background In insects and in mammals, male sperm and seminal fluid provide signaling factors that influence various aspects of female physiology and behavior to promote reproductive success and to compete with other males. It is less apparent how important such signaling is in the context of a self-fertile hermaphrodite species. We have addressed this question in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which can reproduce either by hermaphrodite self-fertilization or by male-hermaphrodite mating.

Results We have studied the egg-laying defective mutant, egl-32, and found that the cellular basis of the egl-32 egg-laying phenotype is likely a defect in sperm. First, the time …

World Notes Biology Icon As He Turns 300 Years Old, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Staria Verpool

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Does Increasing Biology Teacher Knowledge Of Evolution And The Nature Of Science Lead To Greater Advocacy For The Teaching Of Evolution In Schools?, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

This study investigated whether or not an increase in secondary science teacher knowledge about evolution and the nature of science gained from completing a graduate-level evolution course was associated with greater preference for the teaching of evolution in schools. Forty-four precertified secondary biology teachers participated in a 14-week intervention designed to address documented misconceptions identified by a precourse instrument. The course produced statistically significant gains in teacher knowledge of evolution and the nature of science and a significant decrease in misconceptions about evolution and natural selection. Nevertheless, teachers' postcourse preference positions remained unchanged; the majority of science teachers still preferred …

Foraging Ecology Of Black-Crowned Night-Herons (Nycticorax Nycticorax) In The New York City Area, Andrew James Bernick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over 1,700 pairs of colonial wading birds (i.e., herons, egrets, and ibis) breed and forage in the industrialized ecosystem of metropolitan New York City (NYC). Wading bird colonies are located on 7 islands that lie between western Staten Island and Long Island Sound. The Black-crowned Night-Heron (BCNH), a mainly nocturnal forager, is the numerically dominant breeding heron in these colonies, and has been undergoing population declines both locally and region-wide since the mid-1990s. My objective was to determine how BCNHs forage in NYC's urban estuarine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. From March-September 2002-2004, I conducted weekly night surveys on Staten Island, …

Mda-7/Il-24, Novel Anticancer Cytokine: Focus On Bystander Antitumor, Radiosensitization And Antiangiogenic Properties And Overview Of The Phase I Clinical Experience (Review), Irina V. Lebedeva, Luni Emdad, Zao-Zhong Su, Pankaj Gupta, Moira Sauane, Devanand Sarkar, Michelle R. Staudt, Shi-Jian Liu, Mohiuddin M. Taher, Ruoyu Xiao, Paola Barral, Seok-Geun Lee, Dongning Wang, Nicollaq Vozhilla, Eun Sook Park, Lejuan Chatman, Habib Boukerche, Rajagopal Ramesh, Satoshi Inoue, Sunil Chada, Rong Li, Anthony L. De Pass, Parameshwar J. Mahasreshti, Igor P. Dmitriev, David T. Curiel, Adly Yacoub, Steven Grant, Paul Dent, Neil Senzer, John J. Nemunaitis, Paul B. Fisher

Publications and Research

Subtraction hybridization applied to a ‘differentiation therapy’ model of cancer employing human melanoma cells resulted in the cloning of melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24 (mda-7/IL-24). Initial studies confirm an inverse correlation between mda-7 expression and melanoma development and progression. Forced expression of mda-7 by means of a plasmid or via a replication incompetent adenovirus (Ad.mda-7) promotes growth suppression and induces apoptosis in a broad array of human cancers. In contrast, mda-7 does not induce growth suppressive or toxic effects in normal cells. Based on structure (containing an IL-10 signature motif), secretion by cells (including subsets of T-cells) and location on chromosome …

The Effects Of Varying The Timing Of Inputs On A Neural Oscillator, Christina Ambrosio-Mouser, Farzan Nadim, Amitabha Bose

Publications and Research

The gastric mill network of the stomatogastric ganglion of the crab Cancer borealis is comprised of a set of neurons that require modulatory input from outside the stomatogastric ganglion and input from the pyloric network of the animal in order to oscillate. Here we study how the frequency of the gastric mill network is determined when it receives rhythmic input from two different sources but where the timing of these inputs may differ. We find that over a certain range of the time difference one of the two rhythmic inputs plays no role what so ever in determining the network …

A-State Biology Faculty To Publish Adventure Book, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Joy Trauth

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Quest For The ‘Holy Grail Bird’. Discovery Of The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Brings Arkansas Unprecedented Attention, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Jim Bednarz

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Flying Squirrel Is Seldom Seen, Often Misunderstood Member Of Arkansas Wildlife, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Thomas S. Risch

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Aaas Lecture Series On Women In Science And Engineering, Maribel Vazquez

Publications and Research

The winning essay for a Travel Award from the American Association for the Advancement in Science Women Lecture Series.

http://ehrweb.aaas.org/womeninscience/essays/vazquez.htm

Meiotic And Mitotic Phenotypes Conferred By The Blm1-1 Mutation In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae And Msh4 Suppression Of The Bleomycin Hypersusceptibility, Georgia Anyatonwu, Ediberto Garcia, Ajay Pramanik, Marie Powell, Carol Wood Moore

Publications and Research

Oxidative damage can lead to a number of diseases, and can be fatal. The blm1-1 mutation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae confers hypersusceptibility to lethal effects of the oxidative, anticancer and antifungal agent, bleomycin. For the current report, additional defects conferred by the mutation in meiosis and mitosis were investigated. The viability of spores produced during meiosis by homozygous normal BLM1/BLM1, heterozygous BLM1/blm1-1, and homozygous mutant blm1-1/blm1-1 diploid strains was studied and compared. Approximately 88% of the tetrads derived from homozygous blm1-1/blm1-1 mutant diploid cells only produced one or two viable spores. In contrast, just one tetrad among all BLM1/BLM1 and BLM1/blm1-1 …

Up-Regulation Of Neuronal Calcium Sensor-1 (Ncs-1) In The Prefrontal Cortex Of Schizophrenic And Bipolar Patients, Phil Ok Koh, Ashiwel S. Undieh, Robert Levenson, Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic, Michael S. Lidow

Publications and Research

The delineation of dopamine dysfunction in the mentally ill has been a long-standing quest of biological psychiatry. The present study focuses on a recently recognized group of dopamine receptor- interacting proteins as possible novel sites of dysfunction in schizophrenic and bipolar patients. We demonstrate that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia and bipolar cases from the Stanley Foundation Neuropathology Consortium display significantly elevated levels of the D2 dopamine receptor desensitization regulatory protein, neuronal calcium sensor-1. These levels of neuronal calcium sensor-1 were not influenced by age, gender, hemisphere, cause of death, postmortem period, alcohol consumption, or antipsychotic and mood stabilizing …

Low Concentration Microenvironments Enhance The Migration Of Neonatal Cells Of Glial Lineage, Richard A. Able, Jr., Celestin Ngnabeuye, Cade Beck, Eric C. Holland, Maribel Vazquez

Publications and Research

Glial tumors have demonstrated abilities to sustain growth via recruitment of glial progenitor cells (GPCs), which is believed to be driven by chemotactic cues. Previous studies have illustrated that mouse GPCs of different genetic backgrounds are able to replicate the dispersion pattern seen in the human disease. How GPCs with genetic backgrounds transformed by tumor paracrine signaling respond to extracellular cues via migration is largely unexplored, and remains a limiting factor in utilizing GPCs as therapeutic targets. In this study, we utilized a microfluidic device to examine the chemotaxis of three genetically-altered mouse GPC populations towards tumor conditioned media, as …

Return To The Cumaca Cave, Trinidad, W.I, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Anuradha Singh, Annabelle Mckie, Michael Manna, Ruth Baker, Kelly M. Paulson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Ecology Of The Malay Civet (Viverra Tangalunga) In A Logged And An Unlogged Forest In Sabah, East Malaysia, Christina P. Colon

Publications and Research

Malay civets in a dipterocarp rain forest were studied from December, 1995, through June, 1997, in the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve in Sabah, East Malaysia. To investigate the basic ecology of this species and explore the potential impact of selective logging, data on home range, activity and diet were collected on study animals in an unlogged and a selectively logged forest, and comparisons made.

Density in the unlogged forest was 1/0.46 km² , and 1/1.07 km² in the logged forest. Mean home range size based on a 95% minimum convex polygon was 110 ha. and did not differ …

Cope, Caves, And Skeletons In The Closet, Aldemaro Romero Jr., Andrea Romero

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

There’S Is More To Biology Than Molecules, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of The Glucose-Induced Inactivation Of Maltose Permease In Saccharomyces, Igor L. Medintz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The addition of glucose to maltose fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells results in the rapid loss of maltose transport activity. This results both from the repression of the maltose permease gene transcription and from the post-translational inactivation of maltose permease through a process termed glucose-induced inactivation of maltose permease. The inactivation consists of two separable processes, a rapid inhibition of maltose transport activity and by a slower degradation of maltose permease protein. Degradation is dependent on endocytosis, vesicular sorting and vacuolar proteolysis, and is independent of the proteasome. Furthermore, maltose permease exists in differentially phosphorylated forms.

Ubiquitin and the ubiquitin-conjugating system …

A Developmental Study Of The Nmda Receptor, Katherine M. Flynn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The N-methyl-D-aspartate type of glutamate receptor (NMDAR) is involved in the regulation of many neural functions, including neuroendocrine modulation of the vertebrate brain-pituitary-gonad axis. We have used a freshwater teleost, the platyfish (Xiphophorus maculatus), to document age- and gender-specific variations in NMDAR properties. We first localized immunoreactive (ir-) NMDAR in male and female platyfish brain at four stages of the lifespan. Distribution was limited to cells of the nucleus olfactoretinalis (NOR), a gonadotropin releasing hormone-containing nucleus. The number of ir-NMDAR cells was increased in pubescent and mature females when compared to immature and senescent animals. In …

Myelin-Associated Glycoprotein Interacts With Neurons Via A Sialic Acid Binding Site At Arg118 And A Distinct Neurite Inhibition Site, Song Tang, Ying Jing Shen, Maria Elena Debellard, Gitali Mukhopadhyay, James L. Salzer, Paul R. Crocker, Marie T. Filbin

Publications and Research

Inhibitory components in myelin are largely responsible for the lack of regeneration in the mammalian CNS. Myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), a sialic acid binding protein and a component of myelin, is a potent inhibitor of neurite outgrowth from a variety of neurons both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show that MAG’s sialic acid binding site is distinct from its neurite inhibitory activity. Alone, sialic acid–dependent binding of MAG to neurons is insufficient to effect inhibition of axonal growth. Thus, while soluble MAG-Fc (MAG extracellular domain fused to Fc), a truncated form of MAG-Fc missing Ig-domains 4 and 5, MAG(d1-3)-Fc, …

Measurement Of Fungal Biomass In Wooden Art Objects Using Atp Photometry And Energy Charge, Fernando Nieto

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study ATP photometry and energy charge (EC) measurements were used to detect and quantify fungal biomass in wood. Three species of wood decaying fungi were used: Phanerochaete chrysosporium (white rot), Poria placenta (brown rot), and Chaetomnium globosum (soft rot). The fungi were grown in malt extract broth (MEB) for one month at 25 °C, and sampled at selected intervals to measure the ATP content and the EC of the mycelium. The mycelia were ground and extracted with cold 5% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) for 20 hours. The conversion factors calculated were based upon the EC of the mycelium. When …

El Oso Frontino, Rey De Los Andes, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Structural And Functional Studies Of The Tryptophan Operon Of Bacillus Pumilus, Miriam V. Rivas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The nucleotide sequence of the trpE, trpD, and 5’trpC genes of the Bacillus pumilus tryptophan operon was determined for a comparative evaluation. DNA comparisons to the tryptophan operon of a related species, Bacillus subtilis, showed 66% base homology. The overlapping of translational start and stop signals indicate that, similar to Escherichia coli, the trpE, trpD, and trpC genes of the B.pumilus trp operon are translationally coupled. The values for amino acid identity between the two Bacilli showed 68, 62, and 65% for trpE, trpD and 5’trpC genes, respectively. Charge related residues …

Amino Acids And N-Acetyl-Aspartyl-Glutamate As Neurotransmitter Candidates In The Monkey Retinogeniculate Pathways, Ricardo A. Molinar-Rode

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGNd) receives chemically identified inputs from brain stem structures, the thalamus and visual cortex. The identity of the neurotransmitter(s) in the retinal input, however, is unknown.

To investigate the possibility that some amino acids and certain dipeptides, such as N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate (NAAG), fulfill this function, changes in their concentration were measured in the optic tract, parvocellular and magno-cellular segments of the LGNd, superior colliculus and visual cortex of six monkeys (Macaca fascicularis), seven days after right optic tractotomy. The LGNd was studied also in two additional macaques, three months after occipital lobectomy. Tissue was frozen within five …

The Ontogeny And Functional Significance Of Luteinizing Hormone Releasing Hormone (Lhrh) Containing Centers Of The Brain Of The Freshwater Teleost, Xiphophorus Maculatus, Leslie R. Halpern-Sebold

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The use of cytometric, immunocytochemical and radioimmunological methods has allowed the investigation of the ontogeny and functional significance of LHRH containing centers in sibling platyfish (Xiphophorus maculatus) genetically determined to reach sexual maturity at different ages and in adult fish which were hypophysectomized and given replacement therapy with gonadotropin.

There is a sequential development of three immunoreactive (ir-) LHRH centers in the brain that is directly related to stage, not age of sexual maturation. The first region to contain ir-LHRH is the nucleus olfactoretinalis (NOR). Ir-LHRH then appears in the nucleus preopticus periventricularis (NPP), followed by the nucleus lateralis tuberis …

Scientific Collecting In Caves, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Basicranial Anatomy Of The Nimravidae (Mammalia: Carnivora): Character Analyses And Phylogenetic Inferences, Nancy Ann Neff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The phylogenetic relationships of the Nimravidae (Oligocene through latest Miocene catlike carnivorans) are controversial: they have been placed either within the family Felidae, or as sister group to the Felidae, to the modern aeluroid Carnivora, or to the Caniformia. Adoption of cladistic analysis is not sufficient to resolve this controversy: all of the last three hypotheses of relationship have resulted from cladistic analyses.

Competing hypotheses of phylogenetic relationship are here demonstrated to be primarily the result of disagreement about the identification and distribution of characters. Such disagreements reflect the need for a rigorous method of character analysis to enable explicit …