Biology Commons^™

Interactions Between Water-Stress And Maize Resistance To Spider Mites With Varied Host Specialization, Gunbharpur S. Gill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider mites are well-documented pests of many agricultural crops including cereals such as maize. In hot and dry conditions, when crop plants are under water-stress, spider mite populations can rapidly increase within weeks and can cause severe yield losses. One approach to manage pests, such as spider mites, is through the development and selection of plants that can resist pests. Screening of maize lines has provided evidence of spider mite resistance; however, it is unclear how plant water-stress may affect the ability of maize to sustain spider mite resistance. In addition, it is important to understand how plants respond to …

Anthropogenic Influences On Bacterial Assemblages In Stream Biofilms, Elizabeth M. Ogata

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bacteria within biofilms are an essential component of stream ecosystems, influencing the movement of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in watersheds. To better understand the ecological effects of human activities on stream ecosystems, my research examined how nutrients and pharmaceuticals, common pollutants in streams worldwide, influence bacterial assemblages in stream biofilms. First, I tested how nutrients (N, P, iron) and pharmaceuticals (caffeine, diphenhydramine) influenced biofilm bacterial microbiomes (taxa present in at least 75% of samples of a contaminant treatment). Nutrients allowed taxa known for their ability to thrive in nutrient-rich environments to dominate microbiomes, pharmaceuticals supported a rich …

Rapid: Covid-19 Induced Cessation Of Ecotourism And Supplemental Feeding: Implications For Wildlife Physiology, Reproduction, And The Microbiome, Susannah S. French

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Research: Diverse Selective Pressure On Fruit Chemical Traits From Mutualists And Antagonists As A Major Driver Of Chemical Evolution At The Whole Plant Level, Noelle G. Beckman

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Seed-Transmitted Wheat Mosaic Virus In Sweet Corn In Utah, Claudia Nischwitz

Biology Faculty Publications

Wheat mosaic virus (WMoV) (syn. High Plains virus) was first observed in corn in 1993 in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and Texas (Seifers et al. 1997). The virus causes chlorotic streaks and mosaic on corn foliage, and it stunts ear development. When infected early in the season, plants frequently die. There are anecdotal reports of reduced seed germination rates in infected seed lots. The host range of the virus includes corn, small grains, and yellow and green foxtail. The virus is transmitted by the wheat curl mite (Aceria tosichella Keifer 1969). Seed transmission of WMoV at extremely low rates was …

Brain Micrornas Among Social And Solitary Bees, Karen M. Kapheim, Beryl M. Jones, Eirik Søvik, Eckart Stolle, Robert M. Waterhouse, Guy Bloch, Yehuda Ben-Shahar

Biology Faculty Publications

Evolutionary transitions to a social lifestyle in insects are associated with lineage-specific changes in gene expression, but the key nodes that drive these regulatory changes are unknown. We examined the relationship between social organization and lineage-specific microRNAs (miRNAs). Genome scans across 12 bee species showed that miRNA copy-number is mostly conserved and not associated with sociality. However, deep sequencing of small RNAs in six bee species revealed a substantial proportion (20–35%) of detected miRNAs had lineage-specific expression in the brain, 24–72% of which did not have homologues in other species. Lineage-specific miRNAs disproportionately target lineage-specific genes, and have lower expression …

Morphological Evidence For An Oral Venom System In Caecilian Amphibians, Pedro Luiz Mailho-Fontana, Marta Maria Antoniazzi, Cesar Alexandre, Daniel Carvalho Pimenta, Juliana Mozer Sciani, Edmund D. Brodie Jr., Carlos Jared

Biology Faculty Publications

Amphibians are known for their skin rich in glands containing toxins employed in passive chemical defense against predators, different from, for example, snakes that have active chemical defense, injecting their venom into the prey. Caecilians (Amphibia, Gymnophiona) are snake-shaped animals with fossorial habits, considered one of the least known vertebrate groups. We show here that amphibian caecilians, including species from the basal groups, besides having cutaneous poisonous glands as other amphibians do, possess specific glands at the base of the teeth that produce enzymes commonly found in venoms. Our analysis of the origin of these glands shows that they originate …

Investigating The Direct And Indirect Effects Of Forest Fragmentation On Plant Functional Diversity, Jenny Zambrano, Norbert J. Cordeiro, Carol Garzon-Lopez, Lauren Yeager, Claire Fortunel, Henry J. Ndangalasi, Noelle G. Beckman

Biology Faculty Publications

Ongoing habitat loss and fragmentation alter the functional diversity of forests. Generalising the magnitude of change in functional diversity of fragmented landscapes and its drivers is challenging because of the multiple scales at which landscape fragmentation takes place. Here we propose a multi-scale approach to determine whether fragmentation processes at the local and landscape scales are reducing functional diversity of trees in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. We employ a structural equation modelling approach using five key plant traits (seed length, dispersal mode, shade tolerance, maximum tree height, and wood density) to better understand the functional responses of trees to …

A Brief Review Of Monolecty In Bees And Benefits Of A Broadened Definition, James H. Cane

All PIRU Publications

Monolecty in bees was defined a century ago for those species that consistently collect pollen only from the same single species of floral host. Even at the time, the term was considered “a curiosity” with little biological meaning. Here, I review its multiple problems and suggest that its utility would improve if we apply the term monolecty to those bees species that use a single genus (not species) of flowering host.

The Fire And Tree Mortality Database, For Empirical Modeling Of Individual Tree Mortality After Fire, C. Alina Cansler, Sharon M. Hood, J. Morgan Varner, Phillip J. Van Mantgem, Michelle C. Agne, Robert A. Andrus, Matthew P. Ayres, Bruce D. Ayres, Jonathan D. Bakker, Michael A. Battaglia, Barbara J. Bentz, Carolyn R. Breece, James K. Brown, Daniel R. Cluck, Tom W. Coleman, R. Gregory Corace Iii, W. Wallace Covington, Douglas S. Cram, James B. Cronan, Joseph E. Crouse, Adrian J. Das, Ryan S. Davis, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

Wildland fires have a multitude of ecological effects in forests, woodlands, and savannas across the globe. A major focus of past research has been on tree mortality from fire, as trees provide a vast range of biological services. We assembled a database of individual-tree records from prescribed fires and wildfires in the United States. The Fire and Tree Mortality (FTM) database includes records from 164,293 individual trees with records of fire injury (crown scorch, bole char, etc.), tree diameter, and either mortality or top-kill up to ten years post-fire. Data span 142 species and 62 genera, from 409 fires occurring …

How Many Tree Species Of Birch Are In Alaska? Implications For Wetland Designations, Carol A. Rowe, Robert W. Lichvar, Paul G. Wolf

Biology Faculty Publications

Wetland areas are critical habitats, especially in northern regions of North America. Wetland classifications are based on several factors, including the presence of certain plant species and assemblages of species, of which trees play a significant role. Here we examined wetland species of birch (Betula) in North America, with a focus on Alaska, and the use of birche tree species in wetland delineation. We sampled over 200 trees from sites, including Alaska, Alberta, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. We used genetic data from over 3000 loci detected by restriction site associated DNA analysis. We used an indirect estimate of …

Solution Blow Spinning Of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Based Fibers For Energy Harvesting Applications: A Review, Rasheed Atif, Jibran Khaliq, Madeleine Combrinck, Ahmed H. Hassanin, Nader Shehata, Eman Elnabawy, Islam Shyha

Biology Faculty Publications

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based piezoelectric materials (PEMs) have found extensive applications in energy harvesting which are being extended consistently to diverse fields requiring strenuous service conditions. Hence, there is a pressing need to mass produce PVDF-based PEMs with the highest possible energy harvesting ability under a given set of conditions. To achieve high yield and efficiency, solution blow spinning (SBS) technique is attracting a lot of interest due to its operational simplicity and high throughput. SBS is arguably still in its infancy when the objective is to mass produce high efficiency PVDF-based PEMs. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the critical parameters …

A Retrospective Look At The Physiological Stress Response Of Polar Bears: Implications For Health And Reproduction, Susannah S. French

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Acoustic Energy Harvesting And Sensing Via Electrospun Pvdf Nanofiber Membrane, Nader Shehata, Ahmed H. Hassanin, Eman Elnabawy, Remya Nair, Sameer A. Bhat, Ishac Kandas

Biology Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a new usage of piezoelectric poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) electrospun nanofiber (NF) membrane as a sensing unit for acoustic signals. In this work, an NF mat has been used as a transducer to convert acoustic signals into electric voltage outcomes. The detected voltage has been analyzed as a function of both frequency and amplitude of the excitation acoustic signal. Additionally, the detected AC signal can be retraced as a function of both frequency and amplitude with some wave distortion at relatively higher amplitudes and within a certain acoustic spectrum region. Meanwhile, the NFs have been characterized through …

Developmental Plasticity Shapes Social Traits And Selection In A Facultatively Eusocial Bee, Karen M. Kapheim, Beryl M. Jones, Hailin Pan, Cai Li, Brock A. Harpur, Clement F. Kent, Amro Zayed, Panagiotis Ioannidis, Robert M. Waterhouse, Callum Kingwell, Eckart Stolle, Arián Avalos, Guojie Zhang, W. Owen Mcmillan, William T. Wcislo

Biology Faculty Publications

Developmental plasticity generates phenotypic variation, but how it contributes to evolutionary change is unclear. Phenotypes of individuals in caste-based (eusocial) societies are particularly sensitive to developmental processes, and the evolutionary origins of eusociality may be rooted in developmental plasticity of ancestral forms. We used an integrative genomics approach to evaluate the relationships among developmental plasticity, molecular evolution, and social behavior in a bee species (Megalopta genalis) that expresses flexible sociality, and thus provides a window into the factors that may have been important at the evolutionary origins of eusociality. We find that differences in social behavior are derived …

Outstanding Questions In Flower Metabolism, Monica Borghi, Alisdair R. Fernie

Biology Faculty Publications

The great diversity of flowers, their color, odor, taste, and shape, is mostly a result of the metabolic processes that occur in this reproductive organ when the flower and its tissues develop, grow, and finally die. Some of these metabolites serve to advertise flowers to animal pollinators, other confer protection towards abiotic stresses, and a large proportion of the molecules of the central metabolic pathways have bioenergetic and signaling functions that support growth and the transition to fruits and seeds. Although recent studies have advanced our general understanding of flower metabolism, several questions still await an answer. Here, we have …

The Response Of Male Bumblebees To A Putative Queen Pheromone, Xavier K. Haemmerle

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Queen pheromones are chemical signals produced by the dominant reproductive female in many species of eusocial insects. These pheromones are vital for maintaining a reproductive division of labor. Two evolutionary scenarios may describe the origin of queen pheromones. Sensory exploitation describes a scenario where the pheromone is produced to take advantage of a preexisting sensory bias in a population. An alternative scenario is that the recipient of the pheromone has an adapted response to a preexisting chemical signal. There is a growing body of evidence that cuticular hydrocarbons that act as queen pheromones are co-opted from ancient fertility signals that …

Intra- And Interspecific Secondary Metabolite Variation Between Fruit And Leaf Tissues In The Hyperdiverse Psychotria Genus, Cole A. Carlson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Secondary metabolites are chemical compounds that are considered to mediate a variety of plant interactions with their environment and are not involved in basic metabolism. Recently, there has been an interest in understanding the function and allocation of these metabolites in fruit tissues. In contrast to leaves, the chemistry in fruit tissue mediates exclusive interactions with seed dispersers that directly affect plant fitness and are under different evolutionary selective pressures. Only a few studies outline the patterns of chemistry between fruit and leaf tissues. This study aims to understand how secondary metabolites in two species of the hyperdiverse congeneric genus …

Emergent Seedling Spatial Patterns Following Insect Seed Predation In A Simulated Population, Justin Tirrell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Tropical vertebrate species have faced increasing pressures from hunters, causing many to become locally extinct. I used an agent-based model (NEDD) to investigate the influence of dispersal and insect seed predation on seedling survival. Statistical dispersal kernels were used to simulate the dispersal of seeds. The NEDD model generates survival and spatial data from parameter sets, which were chosen based on a Latin-Hypercube experimental design. Spatial point analysis was performed on the output data to identify trends in spatial clustering patterns as the parameter space was changed. The results of this investigation suggest that there is a positive association between …

Autism & Autoimmunity, Clarissa Nelson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

My research was for the Honors Capstone, and consisted of familiarizing myself with the vast amount of research in the fields of autism and autoimmunity and how the two may be connected, then going on to design a new project to help acquire more information where these two fields overlap. The official abstract I have written for this new project goes as follows: Our proposed research project is focused primarily in the fields of autism and autoimmunity, and hopes to uncover more evidence that these two fields are related. We believe that autism is an autoimmune disease, and our project …

Exposure Of Phlebotomus Argentipes To Alpha-Cypermethrin, Permethrin, And Ddt Using Cdc Bottle Bioassays To Assess Insecticide Susceptibility, Jacob Rex Andersen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Background: Insecticide resistance for sand flies is a concern since sand flies are vectors for Leishmania spp. parasites which cause leishmaniasis affecting millions of people each year. The CDC bottle bioassay is used to assess resistance by comparing known insecticide diagnostic doses and diagnostic times from an insecticide-susceptible population. The objective of this study was to determine diagnostic doses and diagnostic times for α-cypermethrin and the lethal dose for 50% and 90% mortality for α-cypermethrin, permethrin, and DDT for Phlebotomus argentipes.

Methods: The CDC bottle bioassays were performed in 1,000 mL glass bottles with 15-25 sand flies from a laboratory …

Herbivory Changes Soil Microbial Communities And Greenhouse Gas Fluxes In High-Latitude Wetlands, Karen M. Foley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Herbivory by migratory animals in high-latitude ecosystems is known to impact greenhouse gas emissions from soils. However, few studies quantify the relationships between changes herbivores make to plant communities and soil conditions, and the biological interactions soil organisms have with their environment that result in changes to greenhouse gas emissions. These relationships are important to understand because they capture important carbon-climate feedbacks that may have implications for climate change policy and land management decisions, especially since high-latitude systems are experiencing unprecedented changes in climate.

In the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta in western Alaska, herbivory by migratory geese affects the magnitude of …

Determining Benthic Macroinvertebrate Abundance And Diversity In Two Arctic Lakes As Part Of An Experimental Lake Warming, Allie Huish

Biology Posters

Global climate change threatens the integrity of freshwater ecosystems across the globe. At higher latitudes these ecosystems are experiencing the highest rates of temperature increase related to climate change. Freshwater invertebrate communities are important sources of food for fishes and bioindicators helping us understand the health of entire ecosystems. Our research is part of a larger experiment which aims to artificially warm an arctic lake by 2-4 ⁰C, to try and determine the impact of rising temperatures on lake food webs and ecosystem function. Our objectives were to calculate benthic macroinvertebrate densities in two arctic lakes, Fog1 and Fog3 (one …

Combining Experimental Evolution And Genomics To Understand How Seed Beetles Adapt To A Marginal Host Plant, Alexandre Rêgo, Samridhi Chaturvedi, Amy Springer, Alexandra M. Lish, Caroline L. Barton, Karen M. Kapheim, Frank J. Messina, Zachariah Gompert

Biology Faculty Publications

Genes that affect adaptive traits have been identified, but our knowledge of the genetic basis of adaptation in a more general sense (across multiple traits) remains limited. We combined population-genomic analyses of evolve-and-resequence experiments, genome-wide association mapping of performance traits, and analyses of gene expression to fill this knowledge gap and shed light on the genomics of adaptation to a marginal host (lentil) by the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Using population-genomic approaches, we detected modest parallelism in allele frequency change across replicate lines during adaptation to lentil. Mapping populations derived from each lentil-adapted line revealed a polygenic basis for …

Microbial Lag Phase Can Be Indicative Of, Or Independent From, Cellular Stress, Philip G. Hamill, Andrew Stevenson, Phillip E. Mcmullan, James P. Williams, Abiann D. R. Lewis, Sudharsan S., Kath E. Stevenson, Keith D. Farnsworth, Galina Khroustalyova, Jon Y. Takemoto, John P. Quinn, Alexander Rapoport, John E. Hallsworth

Biology Faculty Publications

Measures of microbial growth, used as indicators of cellular stress, are sometimes quantified at a single time-point. In reality, these measurements are compound representations of length of lag, exponential growth-rate, and other factors. Here, we investigate whether length of lag phase can act as a proxy for stress, using a number of model systems (Aspergillus penicillioides; Bacillus subtilis; Escherichia coli; Eurotium amstelodami, E. echinulatum, E. halophilicum, and E. repens; Mrakia frigida; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Xerochrysium xerophilum; Xeromyces bisporus) exposed to mechanistically distinct types of cellular stress including low water activity, …

Predictors Of Puma Occupancy Indicate Prey Vulnerability Is More Important Than Prey Availability In A Highly Fragmented Landscape, Courtney A. C. Coon, Peter J. Mahoney, Emilie Edelblutte, Zara Mcdonald, David C. Stoner

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Habitat fragmentation represents the single greatest conservation challenge of the 21st century. This problem is particularly acute for large, obligate carnivores like pumas Puma concolor which have persisted in North and South America in the face of habitat fragmentation and other anthropogenic disturbances. Shrinking habitat and reduced connectivity mean that mapping habitat is increasingly important for species conservation in multiple-use landscapes. Previous work suggests that pumas occupy habitats where sufficient stalking cover and preferred prey are present, yet the intersection of these factors has rarely been assessed. Here we used data from 68 299 camera trap nights collected from 181 …

Introduction To The Special Issue: The Role Of Seed Dispersal In Plant Populations: Perspectives And Advances In A Changing World, Noelle G. Beckman, Clare E. Aslan, Haldre S. Rogers

Biology Faculty Publications

Despite the importance of seed dispersal as a driving process behind plant community assembly, our understanding of the role of seed dispersal in plant population persistence and spread remains incomplete. As a result, our ability to predict the effects of global change on plant populations is hampered. We need to better understand the fundamental link between seed dispersal and population dynamics in order to make predictive generalizations across species and systems, to better understand plant community structure and function, and to make appropriate conservation and management responses related to seed dispersal. To tackle these important knowledge gaps, we established the …

The First Gynandromorph Of The Neotropical Bee Megalopta Amoena (Spinola, 1853) (Halictidae) With Notes On Its Circadian Rhythm, Erin Krichilsky, Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo, Kate Hunter, Callum Kingwell, Chelsey Ritner, William Wcislo, Adam Smith

All PIRU Publications

Gynandromorphy is an anomaly that results in an organism phenotypically expressing both male and female characteristics. Here we describe the first gynandromorph of the bee species Megalopta amoena (Spinola, 1853) (Halictidae, Augochlorini) and the second record of this anomaly within the genus Megalopta. Additionally, we analyzed the bee’s circadian rhythm, which has never before been quantified for a gynandromorph. The gynandromorph showed a deviant activity pattern; it was intermediate between that of the male and female M. amoena. Our results imply that the brains of bilateral gynandromorphs may have mixed sex-specific signaling. Based on four days of recording, …

Dramatic Dietary Shift Maintains Sequestered Toxins In Chemically Defended Snakes, Tatsuya Yoshida, Rinako Ujiie, Alan H. Savitzky, Teppei Jono, Takato Inoue, Naoko Yoshinaga, Shunsuke Aburaya, Wataru Aoki, Hirohiko Takeuchi, Li Ding, Qin Chen, Chengquan Cao, Tein-Shun Tsai, Anslem De Silva, Dharshani Mahaulpatha, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

Unlike other snakes, most species of Rhabdophis possess glands in their dorsal skin, sometimes limited to the neck, known as nucho-dorsal and nuchal glands, respectively. Those glands contain powerful cardiotonic steroids known as bufadienolides, which can be deployed as a defense against predators. Bufadienolides otherwise occur only in toads (Bufonidae) and some fireflies (Lampyrinae), which are known or believed to synthesize the toxins. The ancestral diet of Rhabdophis consists of anuran amphibians, and we have shown previously that the bufadienolide toxins of frog-eating species are sequestered from toads consumed as prey. However, one derived clade, the Rhabdophis nuchalis Group, has …

Invasive Vegetation Affects Amphibian Skin Microbiota And Body Condition, Obed HernáNdez-GóMez, Allison Q. Byrne, Alex R. Gunderson, Thomas S. Jenkinson, Clay F. Noss, Andrew P. Rothstein, Molly C. Womack, Erica B. Rosenblum

Biology Faculty Publications

Invasive plants are major drivers of habitat modification and the scale of their impact is increasing globally as anthropogenic activities facilitate their spread. In California, an invasive plant genus of great concern is Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus leaves can alter soil chemistry and negatively affect underground macro- and microbial communities. Amphibians serve as excellent models to evaluate the effect of Eucalyptus invasion on ground-dwelling species as they predate on soil arthropods and incorporate soil microbes into their microbiotas. The skin microbiota is particularly important to amphibian health, suggesting that invasive plant species could ultimately affect amphibian populations. To investigate the potential for …