Biology Commons^™

Electrophysiological And Motor Responses To Chemosensory Stimuli In Isolated Cephalopod Arms, Kaitlyn E. Fouke, Heather J. Rhodes

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Amphibians And Reptiles Of Colima, Mexico, With A Summary Of Their Conservation Status, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Geoffrey R. Smith, Leland J. S. Pierce, Charles W. Painter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Checklist Of The Amphibians And Reptiles Of Sinaloa, Mexico With A Conservation Status Summary And Comparisons With Neighboring States, Geoffrey R. Smith, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Conservation Checklist Of The Herpetofauna Of Morelos, With Comparisons With Adjoining States, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Geoffrey R. Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Conservation Checklist Of The Amphibians And Reptiles Of Mexico City, With Comparisons With Adjoining States, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Geoffrey R. Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Importance Of Refractory Ligands And Their Photodegradation For Iron Oceanic Inventories And Cycling, Christel Hassler, Damien Cabanes, Sonia Blanco-Ameijeiras, Sylvia G. Sander, Ronald Benner

Faculty Publications

Iron is an essential micronutrient that limits primary production in up to 40% of the surface ocean and influences carbon dioxide uptake and climate change. Dissolved iron is mostly associated with loosely characterised organic molecules, called ligands, which define key aspects of the iron cycle such as its residence time, distribution and bioavailability to plankton. Models based on in situ ligand distributions and the behaviour of purified compounds include long-lived ligands in the deep ocean, bioreactive ligands in the surface ocean and photochemical processes as important components of the iron cycle. Herein, we further characterise biologically refractory ligands in dissolved …

Testing Predictability Of Disease Outbreaks With A Simple Model Of Pathogen Biogeography, Tad Dallas, Colin J. Carlson, Timothée Poisot

Faculty Publications

Predicting disease emergence and outbreak events is a critical task for public health professionals and epidemiologists. Advances in global disease surveillance are increasingly generating datasets that are worth more than their component parts for prediction-oriented work. Here, we use a trait-free approach which leverages information on the global community of human infectious diseases to predict the biogeography of pathogens through time. Our approach takes pairwise dissimilarities between countries’ pathogen communities and pathogens’ geographical distributions and uses these to predict country–pathogen associations. We compare the success rates of our model for predicting pathogen outbreak, emergence and re-emergence potential as a function …

Repeated Vaginal Exposures To The Common Cosmetic And Household Preservative Methylisothiazolinone Induce Persistent, Mast Cell-Dependent Genital Pain In Nd4 Mice, Erica Arriaga-Gomez, Jacyln Kline, Elizabeth Emanuel, Nefeli Neamonitaki, Tenzin Yangdon, Hayley Zacheis, Dogukan Pasha, Jinyoung Lim, Susan Bush, Beebie Boo, Hanna Mengistu, Ruby Kinnamon, Robin Shields-Cutler, Wattenberg Wattenberg, Devavani Chatterjea

Faculty Publications

A history of allergies doubles the risk of vulvodynia-a chronic pain condition of unknown etiology often accompanied by increases in numbers of vulvar mast cells. We previously established the biological plausibility of this relationship in mouse models where repeated exposures to the allergens oxazolone or dinitrofluorobenzene on the labiar skin or inside the vaginal canal of ND4 Swiss Webster outbred mice led to persistent tactile sensitivity and local increases in mast cells. In these models, depletion of mast cells alleviated pain. While exposure to cleaning chemicals has been connected to elevated vulvodynia risk, no single agent has been linked to …

Core–Shell Nanospheres Behind The Blue Eyes Of The Bay Scallop Argopecten Irradians, Olivia K. Harris, Alexandra C.N. Kingston, Caitlin S. Wolfe, Soumitra Ghoshroy, Sönke Johnsen, Daniel Isaac Speiser

Faculty Publications

The bay scallop Argopecten irradians (Mollusca: Bivalvia) has dozens of iridescent blue eyes that focus light using mirror-based optics. Here, we test the hypothesis that these eyes appear blue because of photonic nanostructures that preferentially scatter short-wavelength light. Using transmission electron microscopy, we found that the epithelial cells covering the eyes of A. irradians have three distinct layers: an outer layer of microvilli, a middle layer of random close-packed nanospheres and an inner layer of pigment granules. The nanospheres are approximately 180 nm in diameter and consist of electron-dense cores approximately 140 nm in diameter surrounded by less electron-dense shells …

Hinge Region In Dna Packaging Terminase Pul15 Of Herpes Simplex Virus: A Potential Allosteric Target For Antiviral Drugs, Lana F. Thaljeh, J. Ainsley Rothschild, Misagh Naderi, Lyndon M. Coghill, Jeremy M. Brown, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

Approximately 80% of adults are infected with a member of the herpesviridae family. Herpesviruses establish life-long latent infections within neurons, which may reactivate into lytic infections due to stress or immune suppression. There are nine human herpesviruses (HHV) posing health concerns from benign conditions to life threatening encephalitis, including cancers associated with viral infections. The current treatment options for most HHV conditions mainly include several nucleoside and nucleotide analogs targeting viral DNA polymerase. Although these drugs help manage infections, their common mechanism of action may lead to the development of drug resistance, which is particularly devastating in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, …

Hinge Region In Dna Packaging Terminase Pul15 Of Herpes Simplex Virus: A Potential Allosteric Target For Antiviral Drugs, Lana F. Thaljeh, J. Ainsley Rothschild, Misagh Naderi, Lyndon M. Coghill

Faculty Publications

Approximately 80% of adults are infected with a member of the herpesviridae family. Herpesviruses establish life-long latent infections within neurons, which may reactivate into lytic infections due to stress or immune suppression. There are nine human herpesviruses (HHV) posing health concerns from benign conditions to life threatening encephalitis, including cancers associated with viral infections. The current treatment options for most HHV conditions mainly include several nucleoside and nucleotide analogs targeting viral DNA polymerase. Although these drugs help manage infections, their common mechanism of action may lead to the development of drug resistance, which is particularly devastating in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, …

Multilevel Analysis In Rural Cancer Control: A Conceptual Framework And Methodological Implications, Tine Verreet, Cory J. Weaver, Hiromu Hino, Masahiko Hibi, Fabienne E. Poulain

Faculty Publications

Mitochondria are abundantly detected at the growth cone, the dynamic distal tip of developing axons that directs growth and guidance. It is, however, poorly understood how mitochondrial dynamics relate to growth cone behavior in vivo, and which mechanisms are responsible for anchoring mitochondria at the growth cone during axon pathfinding. Here, we show that in retinal axons elongating along the optic tract in zebrafish, mitochondria accumulate in the central area of the growth cone and are occasionally observed in filopodia extending from the growth cone periphery. Mitochondrial behavior at the growth cone in vivo is dynamic, with mitochondrial positioning …

Fisetin, A 3,7,3 ',4 '-Tetrahydroxyflavone Inhibits The Pi3k/Akt/Mtor And Mapk Pathways And Ameliorates Psoriasis Pathology In 2d And 3d Organotypic Human Inflammatory Skin Models, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated skin disease that involves the interaction of immune and skin cells, and is characterized by cytokine-driven epidermal hyperplasia, deviant differentiation, inflammation, and angiogenesis. Because the available treatments for psoriasis have significant limitations, dietary products are potential natural sources of therapeutic molecules, which can repair the molecular defects associated with psoriasis and could possibly be developed for its management. Fisetin (3,7,3 ',4 '-tetrahydroxyflavone), a phytochemical naturally found in pigmented fruits and vegetables, has demonstrated proapoptotic and antioxidant effects in several malignancies. This study utilized biochemical, cellular, pharmacological, and tissue engineering tools to characterize the effects of …

Late Pleistocene Range Expansion Of North American Topminnows Accompanied By Admixture And Introgression, David D. Duvernell, Eric Westhafer, Jacob F. Schaefer

Faculty Publications

Aim: We used genome‐scale sampling to assess the phylogeography of a group of topminnows in the Fundulus notatus species complex. Two of the species have undergone extensive range expansions resulting in broadly overlapping distributions, and sympatry within drainages has provided opportunities for hybridization and introgression. We assessed the timing and pattern of range expansion in the context of late Pleistocene–Holocene drainage events and evaluated the evidence for introgressive hybridization between species.

Location: Central and southern United States including drainages of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain and portions of the Mississippi River drainage in and around the Central …

Allopatric Speciation In Asia Contributed To The Diversity Anomaly Between Eastern Asia And Eastern North America: Evidence From Anchored Phylogenomics Of Stewartia (Theaceae), Jianhua Li, Peter Del Tredici, Alan R. Lemmon, Emily Moriarty Lemmon, Yunpeng Zhao, Chengxin Fu

Faculty Publications

Premise of research. The disjunct distribution of plant genera between eastern Asia (EA) and eastern North America (ENA) has long attracted the attention of biologists and biogeographers. For most genera that have been studied, there are more species in EA than in ENA, and the diversity anomaly may have resulted from the greater physiographical heterogeneity in EA than in ENA in conjunction with climate and sea level changes. However, few empirical studies have explicitly tested the association between species diversity and allopatric speciation events. The genus Stewartia (Theaceae) displays this diversity anomaly, with two species in ENA and 21 …

Histone H4 H75e Mutation Attenuates Global Genomic And Rad26-Independent Transcription-Coupled Nucleotide Excision Repair, Shisheng Li, Kathiresan Selvam, Sheikh Arafatur Rahman

Faculty Publications

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) consists of global genomic NER (GG-NER) and transcription coupled NER (TC-NER) subpathways. In eukaryotic cells, genomic DNA is wrapped around histone octamers (an H3-H4 tetramer and two H2A-H2B dimers) to form nucleosomes, which are well known to profoundly inhibit the access of NER proteins. Through unbiased screening of histone H4 residues in the nucleosomal LRS (loss of ribosomal DNA-silencing) domain, we identified 24 mutations that enhance or decrease UV sensitivity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. The histone H4 H75E mutation, which is largely embedded in the nucleosome and interacts with histone H2B, significantly attenuates GG-NER and Rad26-independent …

A Comparison Of The Trojan Y Chromosome Strategy To Harvesting Models For Eradication Of Non-Native Species, Jingjing Lyu, Pamela J. Schofield, Kristen M. Reaver, Matthew Beauregard, Rana D. Parshad

Faculty Publications

The Trojan Y Chromosome Strategy (TYC) is a promising eradication method for biological control of non-native species. The strategy works by manipulating the sex ratio of a population through the introduction of supermales that guarantee male offspring. In the current manuscript, we compare the TYC method with a pure harvesting strategy. We also analyze a hybrid harvesting model that mirrors the TYC strategy. The dynamic analysis leads to results on stability of solutions and bifurcations of the model. Several conclusions about the different strategies are established via optimal control methods. In particular, the results affirm that either a pure harvesting …

The Nopp140 Gene In Drosophila Melanogaster Displays Length Polymorphisms In Its Large Repetitive Second Exon, Patrick J. Dimario, Sonu Shrestha Baral

Faculty Publications

Nopp140, often called the nucleolar and Cajal body phosphoprotein (NOLC1), is an evolutionarily conserved chaperone for the transcription and processing of rRNA during ribosome subunit assembly. Metazoan Nopp140 contains an amino terminal LisH dimerization domain and a highly conserved carboxyl domain. A large central domain consists of alternating basic and acidic motifs of low sequence complexity. Orthologous versions of Nopp140 contain variable numbers of repeating basic-acidic units. While vertebrate Nopp140 genes use multiple exons to encode the central domain, the Nopp140 gene in Drosophila uses exclusively exon 2 to encode the central domain. Here, we define three overlapping repeat sequence …

From Pampa To Puna: Biogeography And Diversification Of A Group Of Neotropical Obligate Grassland Birds (Anthus: Motacillidae), Paul Van Els

Faculty Publications

The evolution of Neotropical birds of open landscapes remains largely unstudied. We investigate the diversification and biogeography of a group of Neotropical obligate grassland birds (Anthus: Motacillidae). We use a multilocus phylogeny of 22 taxa of Anthus to test the hypothesis that these birds radiated contemporaneously with the development of grasslands in South America. We employ the R package DDD to analyze the dynamics of Anthus diversification across time in Neotropical grasslands, explicitly testing for shifts in dynamics associated with the Miocene development of grasslands, the putative Pleistocene expansion of arid lowland biomes, and Pleistocene sundering of Andean highland grasslands. …

A Comprehensive Evaluation Of Predictive Performance Of 33 Species Distribution Models At Species And Community Levels, Anna Norberg, Nerea Abrego, F. Guillaume Blanchet, Frederick R. Adler, Barbara J. Anderson, Jani Anttila, Miguel B. Araújo, Tad Dallas, David Dunson, Jane Elith, Scott D. Foster, Richard Fox, Janet Franklin, William Godsoe, Antoine Guisan, Bob O'Hara, Nicole A. Hill, Robert D. Holt, Francis K.C. Hui, Magne Husby, John Atle Kålås, Aleksi Lehikoinen, Miska Luoto, Heidi K. Mod, Graeme Newell, Ian Renner, Tomas Roslin, Janne Soininen, Wilfried Thuiller, Jarno Vanhatalo, David Warton, Matt White, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Dominque Gravel, Otso Ovaskainen

Faculty Publications

A large array of species distribution model (SDM) approaches has been developed for explaining and predicting the occurrences of individual species or species assemblages. Given the wealth of existing models, it is unclear which models perform best for interpolation or extrapolation of existing data sets, particularly when one is concerned with species assemblages. We compared the predictive performance of 33 variants of 15 widely applied and recently emerged SDMs in the context of multispecies data, including both joint SDMs that model multiple species together, and stacked SDMs that model each species individually combining the predictions afterward. We offer a comprehensive …

Large And Small Data Blow-Up Solutions In The Trojan Y Chromosome Model, Rana D. Parshad, Matthew Beauregard, Eric M. Takyi, Thomas Griffin, Landrey Bobo

Faculty Publications

The Trojan Y Chromosome Strategy (TYC) is an extremely well investigated biological control method for controlling invasive populations with an XX-XY sex determinism. In [35, 36] various dynamical properties of the system are analyzed, including well posedness, boundedness of solutions, and conditions for extinction or recovery. These results are derived under the assumption of positive solutions. In the current manuscript, we show that if the introduction rate of trojan fish is zero, under certain large data assumptions, negative solutions are possible for the male population, which in turn can lead to finite time blow-up in the female and male populations. …

Novel Salicylic Acid Analogs Induce A Potent Defense Response In Arabidopsis, Ian Arthur Palmer, Huan Chen, Jian Chen, Ming Chang, Min Li, Fengquan Liu, Zheng Qing Fu

Faculty Publications

The master regulator of salicylic acid (SA)-mediated plant defense, NPR1 (NONEXPRESSER OF PR GENES 1) and its paralogs NPR3 and NPR4, act as SA receptors. After the perception of a pathogen, plant cells produce SA in the chloroplast. In the presence of SA, NPR1 protein is reduced from oligomers to monomers, and translocated into the nucleus. There, NPR1 binds to TGA, TCP, and WRKY transcription factors to induce expression of plant defense genes. A list of compounds structurally similar to SA was generated using ChemMine Tools and its Clustering Toolbox. Several of these analogs can induce SA-mediated defense and inhibit …

Temporal And Spatial Dynamics Of Competitive Parapatry In Chewing Lice, Mark S. Hafner

Faculty Publications

We synthesize observations from 1979 to 2016 of a contact zone involving two subspecies of pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae connectens and T. b. opulentus) and their respective chewing lice (Geomydoecus aurei and G. centralis) along the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, U.S.A., to test predictions about the dynamics of the zone. Historically, the natural flood cycle of the Rio Grande prevented contact between the two subspecies of pocket gophers. Flood control measures completed in the 1930s permitted contact, thus establishing the hybrid zone between the pocket gophers and the contact zone between their lice (without hybridization). Since that time, …

Preliminary Investigation Of A Diverse Megafossil Floral Assemblage From The Middle Miocene Of Southern Mississippi, Usa, Daniel M. Mcnair, Debra Z. Stults, Brian Axsmith, Mac H. Alford, James E. Starnes

Faculty Publications

Our understanding of Miocene floras in eastern North America is hampered by the rarity of megafossil sites. An early report from the middle Miocene Hattiesburg Formation in Mississippi included palms and Ulmus. A later report listed Taxodium, Salix, either Morus or Celtis, and monocot fragments. The floral assemblage described here was recently recovered from along the Bouie River in southern Mississippi. Ferns are represented by complete Salvinia specimens including attached sporocarps, Woodwardia, and Osmunda. Conifers are represented by branchlets of Taxodium. Angiosperms include leaves attributable to the Lauraceae. Platanus is known from leaves, stipules, and fruits. …

Scale Dependence Of Sex-Specific Movement In A Small-Bodied Stream Fish, Scott R. Clark, Brian R. Kreiser, Jacob F. Schraefer, Laura K. Stewart

Faculty Publications

1. Animal movement at localised scales is often modulated by competing pressures such as avoiding predators while acquiring resources and mates. The relative magnitude of these trade‐offs may affect males and females differently, often resulting in sex‐specific differences in movement.
2. Sex‐biases in movement have been linked to mating systems (e.g. monogamy or polygamy) in birds and mammals; however, this relationship has received less attention among fishes. Using passive integrated transponder tags and a series of stationary antennas, we evaluated the movement dynamics of a small‐bodied, sexually dimorphic stream fish Fundulus olivaceus over a 30‐day period in a fourth‐order tributary to the …

Why Nature Matters: Seventh-Day Adventist Education In The Anthropocene, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Linking Nutrient Stoichiometry To Zika Virus Transmission In A Mosquito, Andrew S. Paige, Shawna K. Bellamy, Barry W. Alto, Catherine L. Dean, Donald A. Yee

Faculty Publications

Food quality and quantity serve as the basis for cycling of key chemical elements in trophic interactions; yet the role of nutrient stoichiometry in shaping host–pathogen interactions is under appreciated. Most of the emergent mosquito-borne viruses affecting human health are transmitted by mosquitoes that inhabit container systems during their immature stages, where allochthonous input of detritus serves as the basal nutrients. Quantity and type of detritus (animal and plant) were manipulated in microcosms containing newly hatched Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae. Adult mosquitoes derived from these microcosms were allowed to ingest Zika virus-infected blood and then tested for disseminated infection, transmission, …

Discovery And Characterization Of Bacteriophage Luckybarnes, Savannah L. Underwood, Amanda Foto, Amanda F. Ray, Alexander E. Nelms, Keyshawn L. Kennedy, Shelby G. Hartley, Logan M. Ryals, Chandan Gurung, William A. D'Angelo, Welkin H. Pope, Dmitri V. Mavrodi

Faculty Publications

Here, we report the genome sequence of LuckyBarnes, a newly isolated singleton siphovirus that infects Brevibacterium iodinum ATCC 15728 and has a 50,774-bp genome with 67 predicted genes.

Repurposing Of Glycine-Rich Proteins In Abiotic And Biotic Stresses In The Lone-Star Tick (Amblyomma Americanum), Rebekah Bullard, Surendra Raj Sharma, Pradipta Kumar Das, Sarah E. Morgan, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

Tick feeding requires the secretion of a huge number of pharmacologically dynamic proteins and other molecules which are vital for the formation of the cement cone, the establishment of the blood pool and to counter against the host immune response. Glycine-rich proteins (GRP) are found in many organisms and can function in a variety of cellular processes and structures. The functional characterization of the GRPs in the tick salivary glands has not been elucidated. GRPs have been found to play a role in the formation of the cement cone; however, new evidence suggests repurposing of GRPs in the tick physiology. …

Linking Water Quality To Aedes Aegypti And Zika In Flood-Prone Neighborhoods, Susan Harrell Yee, Donald A. Yee, Rebeca De Jesus Crespo, Autumn Oczkowski, Fengwei Bai, Stephanie Friedman

Faculty Publications

The ability of ecosystems to regulate water quality and flood events has been linked to health outcomes, including mosquito-borne illnesses. In the San Juan Bay Estuary watershed of Puerto Rico, habitat alterations and land-use development have disrupted watershed hydrology, exacerbating wastewater discharges and subjecting some neighborhoods to frequent flooding events. In 2016, the mosquito-borne illness Zika became a new cause for concern. We hypothesized that nutrient-enriched flood water could provide pulses of supplemental nutrients to local mosquito populations. We conducted a field study in six neighborhoods adjacent to the estuary to assess whether environmental variability of nutrient inputs could be …