Biology Commons^™

Pvaast Anallysis Of Alzheimer’S Disease Sequencing Project Pedigree Data, Kristen Crofts, John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder affecting more than 10 percent of Americans over the age of 65 (1). This disease destroys memory and thinking skills and is a leading cause of dementia. Although research in recent years has provided substantial information related to risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a great deal of information still remains unknown. PVAAST is a software tool that can analyze genome sequence data of Alzheimer’s patients in a creative way by also analyzing the patients’ pedigree information. With the combined information from family members, it is more feasible to identify genetic mutations related …

Effect Of Habitat Fragmentation On Diversity And Abundance Of Nesting Birds In An Urban Landscape: The Case Of Mwalimu Nyerere Campus Thickets, University Of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, John Shirima, Chacha Werema

Tanzania Journal of Science

Little is known of the nesting bird species in most of urban areas of East Africa. An investigation was made of the occurrence of breeding bird species in the fragmented thickets found in the Mwalimu Nyerere Campus of the University of Dar es Salaam, in the City of Dar es Salaam. The study examined how habitat fragmentation affects nesting bird species richness and diversity in the thickets. Systematic physical nest searches of breeding birds were conducted in the fragmented thickets. Searches were conducted in transects and they included inspecting vegetation, bare ground, cavities, stream (river) banks and other suitable nesting …

Design Of A Small Scale Wind Generator For Low Wind Speed Areas, Ra Msuya, Rrm Kainkwa, Mi Mgwatu

Tanzania Journal of Science

Most small scale level wind turbine generators are directly driven system, variable speed, and partially connected power electronic converter system. Choice of such system is to avoid costs associated with gearbox. However, due to low wind speed in most of the tropical countries, synchronous generators with smaller or medium speed Permanent Magnet (PM) generator design found to be important and given high performance efficiency. In order to be able to harvest wind energy in off-grid population efficiently, there was a need to design a synchronous generator that can be able to operate under low wind speed, directly connected to the …

Cytotoxicity, Antimicrobial And Antioxidant Activities Of Boletus Bicolor, A Basidiomycetes Mushroom Indigenous To Tanzania, Donatha Tibuhwa

Tanzania Journal of Science

Boletus bicolor commonly known as coloured bolete is a basidiomyctes mushroom species widely used as a delicacy and its extract has been used traditionally to treat several human ailments in Tanzania. This study evaluates its extracts in order to provide a scientific foundation on the possible application in folk medicine system based on the biochemical evaluation. Standard microbes Bacillus subtilis and Candida albicans were used to test, the antifungal and antibacterial activity.  Cytotoxicity test was also done on the extracts using brine shrimp test. Besides, the extracts were also used to investigate for antioxidant activity using DPPH  (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical). …

A Comparative Study Of Species Diversity Of Migrant Birds Between Protected And Unprotected Areas Of The Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands, Nigeria, As Ringim, Fj Magige, Rm Jasson

Tanzania Journal of Science

Among the most complex and fascinating behaviour in birds is their long, non-stop migration. Despite Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands (Ramsar site) being an important wintering ground for migratory birds, little is known about the diversity while density is completely lacking. This study assessed the status of migratory birds in the wetland’s Protected Areas (PAs) and Unprotected Areas (UPAs). A total of 99 census points spaced 400 m apart with radius of 100 m were surveyed from 14 wetlands (48 point count stations in the PAs and 51 in the UPAs). A total of 54 migrant bird species belonging to 13 orders and …

Conservation Efforts Of Kihansi Spray Toad Nectophrynoides Asperginis: Its Discovery, Captive Breeding, Extinction In The Wild And Re-Introduction, Cuthbert Nahonyo, Ezekiel Goboro, Wilirk Ngalason, Severinus Mutagwaba, Ichard Ugomba, Mohammed Nassoro, Emmanuel Nkombe

Tanzania Journal of Science

Species conservation depends on the initiatives to restore or retain and sustainably use the environment in which the species live. This paper highlights how development projects can affect biodiversity conservation and the challenges in achieving sustainable development. The paper discusses a case study of the Kihansi Spray Toad (KST) (Nectophrynoides asperginis) from its discovery, extinction in the wild, captive breeding and subsequent reintroduction to its native habitat; focusing on events, challenges, approaches in addressing issues, future prospects and achievements in the conservation of this endemic species. There has been considerable success in KST husbandry in captivity and reintroduction trials of …

Effect Of Natural Blue-Green Algal Cells Lysis On Freshwater Quality, Kessy Kilulya, Titus Msagati, Bhekie Mamba

Tanzania Journal of Science

Blue-green algae grow in freshwater bodies when they are provided with suitable factors such as nutrients and appropriate weather conditions. Their cell lysis occurs naturally when they encounter unfavourable conditions.  This study reports on the types and amounts of fatty acids added into freshwater due to the algal cell lysis. The investigation on the amount of fatty acids released into water due to algal cells lysis was performed by placing samples in two compartments, one with no light allowing the algae cells to die while the other compartment was kept in favourable conditions enough to sustain the life of algae. …

Developmental Biology, The Stem Cell Of Biological Disciplines, Scott F. Gilbert

Biology Faculty Works

Developmental biology (including embryology) is proposed as "the stem cell of biological disciplines.” Genetics, cell biology, oncology, immunology, evolutionary mechanisms, neurobiology, and systems biology each has its ancestry in developmental biology. Moreover, developmental biology continues to roll on, budding off more disciplines, while retaining its own identity. While its descendant disciplines differentiate into sciences with a restricted set of paradigms, examples, and techniques, developmental biology remains vigorous, pluripotent, and relatively undifferentiated. In many disciplines, especially in evolutionary biology and oncology, the developmental perspective is being reasserted as an important research program.

Investigating The Role Of Small Noncoding Rnas In Vertebrate Anoxia Tolerance, Claire Louise Riggs

Dissertations and Theses

Very few vertebrates survive extended periods of time without oxygen. Entry into metabolic depression is central to surviving anoxia, which is supported by overall suppression of protein synthesis, yet requires increased expression of specific proteins. Studying the rapid and complex regulation of gene expression associated with survival of anoxia may uncover new mechanisms of cellular biology and transform our understanding of cells, as well as inform prevention and treatment of heart attack and stroke in humans. Small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) have emerged as regulators of gene expression that can be rapidly employed, can target individual genes or suites of genes, …

Concise Review: Translating Regenerative Biology Into Clinically Relevant Therapies: Are We On The Right Path?, Jennifer Simkin, Ashley W. Seifert

Biology Faculty Publications

Despite approaches in regenerative medicine using stem cells, bio-engineered scaffolds, and targeted drug delivery to enhance human tissue repair, clinicians remain unable to regenerate large-scale, multi-tissue defects in situ. The study of regenerative biology using mammalian models of complex tissue regeneration offers an opportunity to discover key factors that stimulate a regenerative rather than fibrotic response to injury. For example, although primates and rodents can regenerate their distal digit tips, they heal more proximal amputations with scar tissue. Rabbits and African spiny mice re-grow tissue to fill large musculoskeletal defects through their ear pinna, while other mammals fail to regenerate …

Investigation Of Conical Spinneret In Generating More Dense And Compact Electrospun Nanofibers, Aya Hamed, Nader Shehata, Mohammad Elosairy

Biology Faculty Publications

Electrospinning is an important, widely used process to generate nanofibers. However, there is still an open window for different designs of both spinneret and collector electrodes to be investigated. This paper introduces the impact of new design of conical spinneret electrode on the generated electrospun nanofibers. In this work, the conical feeder is used to generate electrospun Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers, and being compared to the traditional needle feeder at the same processing conditions. The jet’s mechanism is simulated using discrete bead model along with estimated calculations of both deposition area and fiber radius. The electric field distribution that is …

Emma Lucy Braun's Forest Plots In Eastern North America, Robert Ricklefs

Biology Department Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Classifying Cancer Genome Aberrations By Their Mutually Exclusive Effects On Transcription, Jonathan B. Dayton, Stephen R. Piccolo

Faculty Publications

Background

Malignant tumors are typically caused by a conglomeration of genomic aberrations—including point mutations, small insertions, small deletions, and large copy-number variations. In some cases, specific chemotherapies and targeted drug treatments are effective against tumors that harbor certain genomic aberrations. However, predictive aberrations (biomarkers) have not been identified for many tumor types and treatments. One way to address this problem is to examine the downstream, transcriptional effects of genomic aberrations and to identify characteristic patterns. Even though two tumors harbor different genomic aberrations, the transcriptional effects of those aberrations may be similar. These patterns could be used to inform treatment …

Atomistic Simulations And Network-Based Modeling Of The Hsp90-Cdc37 Chaperone Binding With Cdk4 Client Protein: A Mechanism Of Chaperoning Kinase Clients By Exploiting Weak Spots Of Intrinsically Dynamic Kinase Domains, John Czemeres, Kurt Buse, Gennady M. Verkhivker

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

A fundamental role of the Hsp90 and Cdc37 chaperones in mediating conformational development and activation of diverse protein kinase clients is essential in signal transduction. There has been increasing evidence that the Hsp90-Cdc37 system executes its chaperoning duties by recognizing conformational instability of kinase clients and modulating their folding landscapes. The recent cryo-electron microscopy structure of the Hsp90-Cdc37- Cdk4 kinase complex has provided a framework for dissecting regulatory principles underlying differentiation and recruitment of protein kinase clients to the chaperone machinery. In this work, we have combined atomistic simulations with protein stability and network-based rigidity decomposition analyses to characterize dynamic …

Feather Mite Abundance Varies But Symbiotic Nature Of Mite-Host Relationship Does Not Differ Between Two Ecologically Dissimilar Warblers, Alix E. Matthews, Jeffery L. Larkin, Douglas W. Raybuck, Morgan C. Slevin, Scott H. Stoleson, Than J. Boves

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Feather mites are obligatory ectosymbionts of birds that primarily feed on the oily secretions from the uropygial gland. Feather mite abundance varies within and among host species and has various effects on host condition and fitness, but there is little consensus on factors that drive variation of this symbiotic system. We tested hypotheses regarding how within-species and among-species traits explain variation in both (1) mite abundance and (2) relationships between mite abundance and host body condition and components of host fitness (reproductive performance and apparent annual survival). We focused on two closely related (Parulidae), but ecologically distinct, species: Setophaga cerulea …

Complete Mitogenome Sequences Of Smooth Hammerhead Sharks, Sphyrna Zygaena, From The Eastern And Western Atlantic, Derek S. Guy, Cassandra L. Ruck, Jose V. Lopez, Mahmood S. Shivji

Biology Faculty Articles

We report the first mitogenome sequences of the circumglobally distributed, highly mobile, smooth hammerhead shark, Sphyrna zygaena, from the eastern and western Atlantic. Both genomes were 16,729 bp long with 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNAs, 22 tRNAs and a non-coding control region. The two Atlantic shark sequences differ from each other by 13 SNPs, and by 43 and 44 SNPs from the published mitogenome of an S. zygaena specimen from the eastern Pacific Ocean. The cross-Atlantic mitogenome sequences reported here provide a resource to assist with population genetics studies of this widely exploited species of conservation concern.

Infanticide In Chimpanzees: Taphonomic Case Studies From Gombe, Claire A. Kirchhoff, Michael L. Wison, Deus C. Mjungu, Jane Raphael, Shadrack Kamenya, D. Anthony Collins

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Objectives

We present a study of skeletal damage to four chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) infanticide victims from Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Skeletal analysis may provide insight into the adaptive significance of infanticide by examining whether nutritional benefits sufficiently explain infanticidal behavior. The nutritional hypothesis would be supported if bone survivorship rates and skeletal damage patterns are comparable to those of monkey prey. If not, other explanations, such as the resource competition hypothesis, should be considered.

Methods

Taphonomic assessment of two chimpanzee infants included description of breakage and surface modification, data on MNE, %MNE, and bone survivorship. Two additional infants …

From Ground Pools To Treeholes: Convergent Evolution Of Habitat And Phenotype In Aedes Mosquitoes, John Soghigian, Theodore G. Andreadis, Todd P. Livdahl

Biology

Background: Invasive mosquito species are responsible for millions of vector-borne disease cases annually. The global invasive success of Aedes mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus has relied on the human transport of immature stages in container habitats. However, despite the importance of these mosquitoes and this ecological specialization to their widespread dispersal, evolution of habitat specialization in this group has remained largely unstudied. We use comparative methods to evaluate the evolution of habitat specialization and its potential influence on larval morphology, and evaluate whether container dwelling and invasiveness are monophyletic in Aedes. Results: We show that habitat specialization …

Ticks, Ixodes Scapularis, Feed Repeatedly On White-Footed Mice Despite Strong Inflammatory Response: An Expanding Paradigm For Understanding Tick-Host Interactions, Jennifer M. Anderson, Ian N. Moore, Bianca M. Nagata, José M.C. Ribeiro, Jesus G. Valenzuela, Daniel E. Sonenshine

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ticks transmit infectious agents including bacteria, viruses and protozoa. However, their transmission may be compromised by host resistance to repeated tick feeding. Increasing host resistance to repeated tick bites is well known in laboratory animals, including intense inflammation at the bite sites. However, it is not known whether this also occurs in wild rodents such as white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus, and other wildlife, or if it occurs at all. According to the "host immune incompetence" hypothesis, if these mice do not have a strong inflammatory response, they would not reject repeated tick bites by Ixodes scapularis. To test …

Daphnia: A Possible Way To Combat A Deadly Amphibian Pathogen, Taylor Thomas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Globally there is a biodiversity crisis, with many groups of species threatened with extinction due to changes in the environment and human impacts. Amphibians are one such group and according to the IUCN, over 30% of amphibians are threatened by extinction. There are many factors have that can explain the decline of amphibians including pollution, habitat loss, climate change and disease. One factor is chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease caused by the chytrid Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The chytrid enters the keratinized skin of the amphibian and asexually reproduces, where it disrupts host functions, often leading to host death.

Due to …

The Role Of Brain Stem 5-Ht1a And Gaba-A Receptors In The Thermoregulatory Response To Hypoxic Stress, Alexander Schmidt

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a leading cause of infant mortality. Alterations in brainstem development of Serotonin (5HT) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are linked to its cause. The sympathetic premotor neurons located in the Nucleus of the Raphe Pallidus (NRP) in the brainstem have both 5-HT1A and GABA-A receptor subtypes that mediate protective cardiovascular responses to environmental stress. It is hypothesized that alteration in these receptors at the NRP will also modify protective thermoregulatory responses to hypoxic stress such as hypothermia. Using aseptic techniques, male and female Sprague-Dawley rats (230-385g) were instrumented with radiotelemetry probes to non-invasively measure core …

Tetrameric Structure Of Beta-Amylase 2 (Bam2) In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Lauren Elizabeth Pope

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Plants store starch during the day for use at night. This process of transitory starch degradation is mostly attributable to the β-Amylase (BAM) family, which are starch exohydrolases that cleave the penultimate α-1,4 glycosidic bonds of starch to release maltose. BAM2 was recently characterized as a catalytically active, K⁺-requiring tetramer with sigmoidal kinetics and cooperativity. All other catalytically active BAMs display Michaelis-Menten kinetics, no cooperativity, and do not require salt, making BAM2’s characteristics intriguing. Due to a lack of a crystal structure, a monomeric homology model of BAM2 was generated using I-TASSER based on a BAM5 from soybean. …

Predicted Suitable Habitat Declines For Midwestern United States Amphibians Under Future Climate And Land-Use Change Scenarios, Brock Struecker, Joseph Milanovich

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

With current declines of vertebrate taxa meeting or exceeding those of historic mass extinction events, there is a growing need to investigate the main drivers of losses. Two of the main drivers of declines are global climate and land-use changes, both affecting multiple groups of taxa. Amphibians are at great risk from these two drivers of change and investigations into the impact of future change could assist with the formation of conservation plans to mitigate losses. Forecasting changes in suitable habitat with ecological niche modeling serves as a useful tool to begin to understand how species may respond to anthropogenic …

Literary Digest: Cannibal Poetry And Biology, Alicia Anzaldo, Claire Boeck, Sara Schupack

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

A humanities professor and a biology professor at Wilbur Wright College collaborated to create a lesson on human digestion and poetry, enriching the humanities course theme on cannibalism. This article describes the lesson plan, examples of student work, and faculty reflections.

Mitochondrial Dynamics And Respiration Within Cells With Increased Open Pore Cytoskeletal Meshes, David H. Jang, Sarah C. Seeger, Martha E. Grady, Frances S. Shofer, David M. Eckmann

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The cytoskeletal architecture directly affects the morphology, motility, and tensional homeostasis of the cell. In addition, the cytoskeleton is important for mitosis, intracellular traffic, organelle motility, and even cellular respiration. The organelle responsible for a majority of the energy conversion for the cell, the mitochondrion, has a dependence on the cytoskeleton for mobility and function. In previous studies, we established that cytoskeletal inhibitors altered the movement of the mitochondria, their morphology, and their respiration in human dermal fibroblasts. Here, we use this protocol to investigate applicability of power law diffusion to describe mitochondrial locomotion, assessment of rates of fission and …

Foraging Behavior And Energetics Of Albatrosses In Contrasting Breeding Environments, Michelle Antolos, Scott Shaffer, Henri Weimerskirch, Yann Tremblay, Daniel Costa

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Animals can maximize fitness by optimizing energy acquisition through the selection of favorable foraging habitats, but trade-offs exist between time spent in preferred feeding habitats, energetic costs of travel, and reproductive constraints. For pelagic seabirds, geographic distribution of suitable breeding islands can restrict access to marine prey resources and influence foraging strategies. Laysan (Phoebastria immutabilis) and black-footed albatrosses (P. nigripes) breeding in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses (Thalassarche carteri) breeding in the Southern Indian Ocean, utilize productive subtropical-subpolar transition zones during their breeding and non-breeding periods, but this marine feature is at a comparatively greater distance for …

Data From: Target Sequence Capture Of Nuclear-Encoded Genes For Phylogenetic Analysis In Ferns, Paul G. Wolf, Tanner A. Robison, Matthew G. Johnson, Michael A. Sundue, Weston L. Testo, Carl J. Rothfels

Browse all Datasets

Premise of the study: Until recently, most phylogenetic studies of ferns were based on chloroplast genes. Evolutionary inferences based on these data can be incomplete because the characters are from a single linkage group and are uniparentally inherited. These limitations are particularly acute in studies of hybridization, which is prevalent in ferns; fern hybrids are common and ferns are able to hybridize across highly diverged lineages, up to 60 million years since divergence in one documented case. However, it not yet clear what effect such hybridization has on fern evolution, in part due to a paucity of available biparentally inherited …

Diet And Activity Patterns Of Five Bat Species In North-Central Kansas, Holly G. Wilson

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

My study focuses on six bat species that occur in north-central Kansas. Although each species is widely distributed, information about their diet and activity patterns is lacking, especially within Kansas. Increased knowledge about bat species in Kansas can provide a baseline for future studies and conservation efforts for the species included in my study; big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), northern myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis), and tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) were captured and fecal samples were examined for diet diversity. I captured bats in mist nets in the Kansas …

Mechanism Of Gene Regulation By Coding Polya Tracks, Laura Lea Arthur

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Regulation of gene expression is essential for cellular development and survival. The great variety and complexity of regulatory mechanisms underscores this fact. Messenger RNA stability and translational efficiency are often key determinants of gene expression. mRNA surveillance pathways, discovered for their role in degradation of aberrant mRNA, are now known to be instrumental in the regulation of physiologically correct mRNA stability. Thus, the study of cis elements in a transcript that can induce mRNA surveillance pathways has become an area of particular interest.Here I report on the mechanism of gene regulation by coding polyA tracks, defined as a sequence of …

Understanding The Paradox Of Genetic Diversity In Uropathogenic E. Coli: The Uncommon Evolution Of A Common Pathogen, Henry Louis Schreiber

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the second most common bacterial infection of people in the U.S.A and are frequently recurrent, as an initial UTI is quickly followed by a second episode in 30-35% of cases despite appropriate antibiotic treatment and clearance of the bacteria from the urine. The vast majority, >80%, of UTIs are caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). UPEC that colonize the bladder are thought to originate in the gut, where they live as commensal organisms. UPEC can be shed in feces to colonize the vagina and/or periurethral area, and then can ascend into the bladder to start …