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New Piperidine Alkaloids From Fire Ants Are Not Sequestered By The Green And Black Poison Frog ( Dendrobates Auratus ), Ian Davison, Ralph Saporito, Lisa M. Shulte, Kyle Summers

2021 Faculty Bibliography

Neotropical poison frogs possess alkaloid-based antipredator defenses which they sequester from a diet of arthropods such as oribatid mites and myrmicine ants. Alkaloid sequestration is still poorly understood and although several studies have examined its uptake, most experiments directly feed alkaloids to the frogs. Here, we examined the alkaloid uptake system in the poison frog species Dendrobates auratus by feeding it an alkaloid-containing prey item, the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Formicidae, Myrmicinae). Captive bred frogs were either fed live ants or fruit flies dusted with powdered ants for 4 months. Using GC–MS, we confirm that S. invicta contain …

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Gypsum-Exclusive Plants Accumulate More Leaf S Than Non-Exclusive Species Both In And Off Gypsum, Andreu Cera, Gabriel Montserrat-Martí, Juan Pedro Ferrio, Rebecca E. Drenovsky, Sara Palacio

2021 Faculty Bibliography

Gypsum-exclusive species (gypsophiles), are restricted to gypseous soils in natural environments. However, it is unclear why gypsophiles display greater affinity to gyspeous soils than other soils. These plants are edaphic endemics, growing in alkaline soils with high Ca and S. Gypsophiles tend to show higher foliar Ca and S, lower K and, sometimes, higher Mg than non-exclusive gypsum species, named gypsovags. Our aim was to test if the unique leaf elemental signature of gypsophiles could be the result of special nutritional requirements linked to their specificity to gypseous soils. These nutritional requirements could hamper the completion of their life cycle …

Total Synthesis Of Decahydroquinoline Poison Frog Alkaloids Ent-Cis-195a And Cis-211a, Takuya Okada, Naizhen Wu, Katsuki Takashima, Jungoh Ishimura, Hiroyuki Morita, Takuya Ito, Takeshi Kodama, Yuhei Yamasaki, Shin-Ichi Akanuma, Yoshiyuki Kubo, Ken-Ichi Hosoya, Hiroshi Tsuneki, Tsutomu Wada, Toshiyasu Sasaoka, Takahiro Shimizu, Hideki Sakai, Linda P. Dwoskin, Syed R. Hussaini, Ralph Saporito, Naoki Toyooka

2021 Faculty Bibliography

The total synthesis of two decahydroquinoline poison frog alkaloids ent-cis-195A and cis-211A were achieved in 16 steps (38% overall yield) and 19 steps (31% overall yield), respectively, starting from known compound 1. Both alkaloids were synthesized from the common key intermediate 11 in a divergent fashion, and the absolute stereochemistry of natural cis-211A was determined to be 2R, 4aR, 5R, 6S, and 8aS. Interestingly, the absolute configuration of the parent decahydroquinoline nuclei of cis-211A was the mirror image of that of cis-195A, although both alkaloids were isolated from the same poison frog species, Oophaga (Dendrobates) pumilio, from Panama.

A New Species Of Cryptic Cyanobacteria Isolated From The Epidermis Of A Bottlenose Dolphin And As A Bioaerosol, Amber O. Brown, Caitlin S. Romanis, Petr Dvorak, Amanda J. Foss, Quincy A. Gibson, Chelsea D. Villaneuva, Wendy N. Durden, Anyssa D. Garvey, Phillip Jenkins, Petr Hasler, Jeffrey R. Johansen, Brett A. Neilan, Dale A. Casamatta

2021 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Trichotorquatus Gen. Nov. - A New Genus Of Soil Cyanobacteria Discovered From American Drylands, Nicole Pietrasiak, Sharon Reeve, Karina Osorio-Santos, David A. Lipson, Jeffrey R. Johansen

2021 Faculty Bibliography

Cyanobacteria are crucial ecosystem components in dryland soils. Advances in describing a–level taxonomy are needed to understand what drives their abundance and distribution. We describe Trichotorquatus gen. nov. (Oculatellaceae, Synechococcales, Cyanobacteria) based on four new species isolated from dryland soils including the coastal sage scrub near San Diego, California (USA), the Mojave and Colorado Deserts with sites at Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve, California (USA), and the Atacama Desert (Chile). The genus is morphologically characterized by having thin trichomes (<4.5 lm wide), cells both shorter and longer than wide, rarely occurring single and double false branching, necridia appearing singly or in rows, and sheaths with a distinctive collar-like fraying and widening mid-filament, the feature for which the genus is named. The genus is morphologically nearly identical with Leptolyngbya sensu stricto but is phylogenetically quite distant from that genus. It is consequently a cryptic genus that will likely be differentiated in future studies based on 16S rRNA sequence data. The type species, T. maritimus sp. nov. is morphologically distinct from the other three species, T. coquimbo sp. nov., T. andrei sp. nov. and T. ladouxae sp. nov. However, these latter three species are morphologically very close and are considered by the authors to be cryptic species. All species are separated phylogenetically based on sequence of the 16S-23S ITS region. Three distinct ribosomal operons were recovered from the genus, lending difficulty to recognizing further diversity in this morphologically cryptic genus.

When Will Taxonomic Saturation Be Achieved? A Case Study In Nunduva And Kyrtuthrix (Rivulariaceae, Cyanobacteria)1, Jeffrey R. Johansen, Laura Gonzalez-Resendiz, Viviana Escobar-Sanchez, Claudia Segal-Kischinevzky, Jose Martınez-Yerena, Joaquin Hernandez-Sanchez, Gariela Hernandez-Perez, Hilda Leon-Tejera

2021 Faculty Bibliography

A number of heterocytous, mat-forming, tapering cyanobacteria in Rivulariaceae have recently been observed in both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in the rocky intertidal and supratidal zones. These belong to the genera Nunduva, Kyrtuthrix, and Phyllonema and have been the subject of several recent studies. Herein, two new species of Nunduva (N. komarkovae and N. sanagustinensis) and two new species of Kyrtuthrix (K. munecosensis and K. totonaca) are characterized and described from the coasts of Mexico. Genetic separation based on the 16S-23S ITS region was pronounced (>10% in all comparisons). Morphological differences between all existing species in these two …

Repeatability Of Foraging Behavior Following A Simulated Predation Attempt Depends On Color Morph, Sex, And Foraging Metric In Red-Backed Salamanders (Plethodon Cinereus), Brian P. Waldron*, Marissa C. Ganzfried*, Cari-Ann M. Hickerson, Carl D. Anthony

2021 Faculty Bibliography

Behavioral repeatability greatly affects the capacity of an individual to respond to varying environments. When multiple behaviors within individuals are repeatable and correlated across time or across contexts, it is termed a behavioral syndrome. However, not all behaviors exhibit the same level of repeatability, and relatively few studies have examined repeatability in amphibians. We examined the repeatability of foraging behavior in the Eastern Red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus), a color-polymorphic terrestrial salamander, following a simulated predation attempt. We tested several hypotheses: (1) Simulated predation would negatively affect foraging, increasing latency to feed and decreasing the number of prey items eaten in …