Biology Commons^™

Labile Soil Carbon Inputs Mediate The Soil Microbial Community Composition And Plant Residue Decomposition Rates, Marie-Anne De Graaff, Aimee T. Classen, Hector F. Castro, Christopher W. Schadt

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

• Root carbon (C) inputs may regulate decomposition rates in soil, and in this study we ask: how do labile C inputs regulate decomposition of plant residues, and soil microbial communities?

• In a 14 d laboratory incubation, we added C compounds often found in root exudates in seven different concentrations (0, 0.7, 1.4, 3.6, 7.2, 14.4 and 21.7 mg C g soil) to soils amended with and without ¹³C-labeled plant residue. We measured CO₂ respiration and shifts in relative fungal and bacterial rRNA gene copy numbers using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

• Increased labile C input …

Mechanisms Responsible For A Φx174 Mutant's Ability To Infect Escherichia Coli By Phosphorylation, Jennifer Cox, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

The ability for a virus to expand its host range is dependent upon a successful mode of viral entry. As such, the host range of the well-studied ΦX174 bacteriophage is dictated by the presence of a particular lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on the bacterial surface. The mutant ΦX174 strain JACS-K, unlike its ancestor, is capable of infecting both its native host Escherichia coli C and E. coli K-12, which does not have the necessary LPS. The conversion of an alanine to a very reactive threonine on its virion surface was found to be responsible for the strain's expanded host range.

Environmental Correlates Of Abundances Of Mosquito Species And Stages In Discarded Vehicle Tires, Donald A. Yee, Jamie M. Kneitel, Steven A. Juliano

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Discarded vehicle tires are a common habitat for container mosquito larvae, although the environmental factors that may control their presence or abundance within a tire are largely unknown. We sample discarded vehicle tires in six sites located within four counties of central Illinois during the spring and summer of 2006 to determine associations between a suite of environmental factors and community composition of container mosquitoes. Our goal was to find patterns of association between environmental factors and abundances of early and late instars. We hypothesized that environmental factors correlated with early instars would be indicative of oviposition cues, whereas environmental …