Biology Commons^™

Ranging Patterns And Habitat Utilization Of Northern River Otters, Lontra Canadensis, In Missouri: Implications For The Conservation Of A Reintroduced Species, Deborah Dorothy Boege-Tobin

Dissertations

I studied the spacing patterns and habitat utilization by reintroduced northern river otters, Lontra canadensis, at two sites in Missouri because previous studies of otters indicate, plasticity of a species social structure will likely be due to the tactics employed in acquiring resources in any given area. Seven hypotheses were tested by employing radio-tracking, habitat assessment and geographic information system approaches: (1) home range (HR) and core area (CA) size differ by sex; (2) HR and CA size differ in breeding vs. non-breeding seasons; (3) percent range overlap differs by sex; (4) habitat utilization, as indicated by latrine use, …

Bioinformatics Study Of Mammalian Mrna Polydenylation, Haibo Zhang

Dissertations

Messenger RNA polyadenylation is one of the key post-transcriptional events in mammalian cells, which have influences on many aspects of mRNA metabolism. Several human diseases have been shown to associate with abnormal polyadenylation, highlighting the importance of this process. The availability of the complete sequence of human and mouse genomes, together with their gene expression data provides valuable resources to study mRNA polyadenylation on a system level. This dissertation addresses the following issues of mammalian mRNA polyadenylation through bioinformatics approaches: (1) the extensive documentation of several key aspects of polyadenylation sites in humans and mice on a genomic level; (2) …

The Role Of Puf3 Protein Interactions In The Regulation Of Mrna Decay In Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Shervin Sean Houshmandi

Dissertations

The regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) metabolism is an important step in proper gene expression. In many eukaryotic organisms this regulation can be mediated by a group of highly conserved RNA-binding proteins known as the Puf family of proteins. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has several proteins that belong to this family. One of the yeast Puf proteins, Puf3p, binds and regulates the COX17 mRNA, which codes for a protein involved in mitochondrial copper transport. Specifically, Puf3p stimulates the decay of COX17 mRNA. However, the precise mechanism of Puf3p binding and decay regulation is yet unknown. The goal of this research …

Bufadienolides In The Chemical Defenses Of The Toads, Bufo Americanus And Bufo Fowleri, Catherine E. Merovich

Dissertations

Resource equalization represents the historical and theoretical basis for American school finance and its ideals continue to dominate discussion and practice. During the last decade and a half, the national aspiration for equitable distribution of school finance resources has started a transformation into a derivative notion of adequacy. This equity policy derivative embraces the idea of sufficiency, which in turn implies a standard. The concept of educational adequacy has grown to mean the achievement of high absolute standards. Equity (equalization) theorists measure resource level on a relative basis; each student relative to all others. Adequacy adherents measure student achievement against …

The Glucose And Insulin Responsiveness Of The Rat Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Promoter, Daryl Arkwright-Keeler

Dissertations

The regulation of expression of some enzymes involved in glucose homeostasis and fat metabolism requires both insulin and glucose to elicit an effect, while the regulation of others requires only one. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), an important enzyme involved in glucose homeostasis, has been shown to be transcriptionally regulated by carbohydrate feeding in rat liver, a diet regime that increases the levels of both glucose and insulin. Our lab had previously shown that insulin induces expression of G6PDH, thus we wanted to determine if glucose also induced G6PDH expression and if so, are the glucose and insulin responses mediated through identical …

Changes In Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Nerve Growth Factor Expression With Development, Age, Exercise And Hypertension, Bertha C. Rebimbas-Cohen

Dissertations

Neurotrophic factors are important for neuronal growth, survival, and maintenance of cell phenotype. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) affects sensory, autonomic and somatic motor neurons and nerve growth factor (NGF) affects sensory and sympathetic neurons. NGF and GDNF are produced by cardiac muscle and have potent effects on sensory and autonomic neuronal innervation of blood vessels. Neural innervation plays a key role in blood vessel function. Since neural innervation of blood vessels may be regulated by growth factors, we wanted to determine what changes would occur to NGF and GDNF levels with maturity, exercise and hypertension.

Changes in GDNF …