Biology Commons^™

Bk Potassium Currents Contribute Differently To Action Potential Waveform And Firing Rate As Rat Hippocampal Neurons Mature In The First Postnatal Week, Michael Hunsberger, Michelle Mynlieff

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The large-conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel is a critical regulator of neuronal action potential firing and follows two distinct trends in early postnatal development: an increase in total expression and a shift from the faster activating STREX isoform to the slower ZERO isoform. We analyzed the functional consequences of developmental trends in BK channel expression in hippocampal neurons isolated from neonatal rats aged 1 to 7 days. Following overnight cultures, action potentials and currents were recorded using whole cell patch-clamp electrophysiology. These neurons undergo a steady increase in excitability during this time, and the effect of blockade of BK channel …

Investigation Of Undocumented Heart Disease In Cadaveric Donors, Crystal Danae Passburg

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

For nearly a century, heart disease has been the leading source of death and disease in the United States, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals every year and burdening millions more with diminished health and severe disability. However, despite the significant known prevalence of heart disease, studies suggest that many more individuals—and particularly those within the female and elderly populations—may possess undiagnosed heart disease which remains undetected even after death due to the lack of autopsy examination. In the absence of autopsy, many cases of heart disease may never be identified, resulting in a skewed understanding of …

Functions Of Fibroblast Growth Factor Homologous Factor 2 In Excitable Tissues, Christopher Marra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: Fibroblast Growth Factor Homologous Factors (FHFs) are a group of proteins known to associate with and modulate voltage-gated sodium channels (Na_v) in excitable cells. The four FHF genes are differentially expressed in specific cell-types, with FHF2 expressed prominently in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, heart and dorsal root ganglia. Due to previous unavailability of an Fhf2 knockout mouse, this gene’s functions have been understudied in comparison to other those encoding other FHFs. The purpose of this research has been to better understand the normal physiological functions of FHF2 at the cellular and system levels in the heart, sensory …

Employing High Probability Gene Choice Elements To Understand Singular Odorant Receptor Expression, Raena Mina

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ability to detect odorous chemicals in the environment is the oldest of the senses necessary for survival, from escaping danger, finding mates, to locating food. It is said that humans can identify and discriminate up to a trillion different odor mixtures. For chemoreception to have such a high discriminatory power, would require a diverse population of cells dedicated for odor detection. These detector cells are the olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), which express odorant receptors (ORs) that bind to chemical odors in the environment. In order to increase specificity and sensitivity, an essential property in olfaction is for each OSN …

From Theory To Practice: Gathering Evidence For The Validity Of Data Collected With The Interdisciplinary Science Rubric (Idsr)., Brie Tripp, Erin E. Shortlidge

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a world of burgeoning societal issues, future scientists must be equipped to work inter-disciplinarily to address real-world problems. To train undergraduate students toward this end, practitioners must also have quality assessment tools to measure students' ability to think within an interdisciplinary system. There is, however, a dearth of instruments that accurately measure this competency. Using a theoretically and empirically based model, we developed an instrument, the Interdisciplinary Science Rubric (IDSR), to measure undergraduate students' interdisciplinary science thinking. An essay assignment was administered to 102 students across five courses at three different institutions. Students' work was scored with the newly …

Sensory Stressors Impact Species Responses Across Local And Continental Scales, Ashley A. Wilson

Master's Theses

Pervasive growth in industrialization and advances in technology now exposes much of the world to anthropogenic night light and noise (ANLN), which pose a global environmental challenge in terrestrial environments. An estimated one-tenth of the planet’s land area experiences artificial light at night — and that rises to 23% if skyglow is included. Moreover, anthropogenic noise is associated with urban development and transportation networks, as the ecological impact of roads alone is estimated to affect one-fifth of the total land cover of the United States and is increasing in space and intensity. Existing research involving impacts of light or noise …

Efficient Approximations For Stationary Single-Channel Calcium Nanodomains, Yinbo Chen

Dissertations

Mathematical and computational modeling plays an important role in the study of local Ca2+ signals underlying many fundamental physiological processes such as synaptic neurotransmitter release and myocyte contraction. Closed-form approximations describing steady-state distribution of Ca2+ in the vicinity of an open Ca2+ channel have proved particularly useful for the qualitative modeling of local Ca2+ signals. This dissertation presents several simple and efficient approximants for the equilibrium Ca2+ concentration near a point source in the presence of a mobile Ca2+ buffer, which achieve great accuracy over a wide range of model parameters. Such approximations provide an efficient method for estimating Ca2+ …

Genetic Population Structure And Microbiome Of German Cockroaches In Urban Environments, Xueyang Fan

Dissertations

Pests of human habitats may harbor and disperse pathogens that cause human disease. One such pest is the German cockroach (Blattella germanica), which is known to harbor numerous pathogens, including Klebsiella and Pseudomonas. The aim of this study is to reveal the importance of the German cockroach as a potential vector of human medically important diseases. To do so, this study investigates German cockroach population structure and their associated bacterial microbiome in urban residential environments. Ninety German cockroaches are collected from three residential apartment buildings in three New Jersey cities. Samples are caught by glue traps and stored at -20°C. …

From Gene To Function: A Safe Laboratory Exercise Promoting The Learning Of The Central Dogma Of Biology For The Undergraduate Biology Curriculum., Manuela Tripepi, Morgan Clear, Jack Lyons Bondi, Elvira Brunelli, Arianna Berardi

College of Life Sciences Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Adolescent Chronic Mild Stress: In Female Wistar-Kyoto Rats, Anna Hallowell

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Despite years of research to understand under-lying mechanisms and develop more effective treatment approaches for mood disorders, numerous challenges exist. Many chronic stress models are used to study mood disorders, how-ever the majority have been established with adult males. This is problematic considering that affective disorders are more common in women, and generally develop during late adolescence. Studies have indicated fundamental behavioral, physiological, and neural differences between males and females in response to the same external stressors, furthering a need to develop sex-specific paradigms to accurately model the etiology of mood disorders in females. The Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat strain is …

Increased Diversity And Novel Subtypes Among Clinical Cryptosporidium Parvum And Cryptosporidium Hominis Isolates In Southern Ireland, Jennifer K. O'Leary, Liam Blake, Gerard D. Corcoran, Roy D. Sleator, Brigid Lucey

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

Reported incidence rates of cryptosporidiosis in Ireland are consistently among the highest in Europe. Despite the national prevalence of this enteric parasite and the compulsory nature of incidence surveillance and reporting, in-depth analyses seeking to genotype clinical isolates of Cryptosporidium on an intra-species level are rarely undertaken in Ireland. This molecular epidemiology study of 163 clinical Cryptosporidium isolates was conducted in Southern Ireland, from 2015 to 2018, in order to ascertain population subtype heterogeneity. Analysis was conducted via real-time PCR amplification and gp60 gene sequencing, which successfully determined the subtype designation of 149 of the 163 (91.4%) tested isolates. Overall, …

Urbanization Impacts On Campus Cypress Domes, Jennifer Bennett, Ashley Boggs, Nathan Colonna, Angela Ferebee, Bruno Kallas

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Cypress domes are terrestrial freshwater ecosystems characterized by the presence of cypress trees (Taxodium spp.) growing in well-defined, dome-shaped clusters throughout the southeastern United States. These systems are one of many ecosystems in Florida facing increasing threats from human expansion and urbanization including fire suppression, logging, and hydrological alterations. This study sought to examine the impacts of urbanization on three cypress domes located on the University of Central Florida Orlando campus. To do this, we measured the defining traits, dendrochronology of Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium, and soil characteristics in each of the three selected domes. The cypress …

Inferred Genetic Architecture Underlying Evolution In A Fossil Stickleback Lineage, Yoel E. Stuart, Matthew P. Travis, Michael A. Bell

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Inferring the genetic architecture of evolution in the fossil record is difficult because genetic crosses are impossible, the acquisition of DNA is usually impossible and phenotype–genotype maps are rarely obvious. However, such inference is valuable because it reveals the genetic basis of microevolutionary change across many more generations than is possible in studies of extant taxa, thereby integrating microevolutionary process and macroevolutionary pattern. Here, we infer the genetic basis of pelvic skeleton reduction in Gasterosteus doryssus, a Miocene stickleback fish from a finely resolved stratigraphic sequence that spans nearly 17,000 years. Reduction in pelvic score, a categorical measure of …

Model And Data Concur And Explain The Coexistence Of Two Very Distinct Animal Behavioral Types, Jordi Moya-Laraño, Rubén Rabaneda-Bueno, Emily Morrison, Phillip H. Crowley

Biology Faculty Publications

Behaviors may enhance fitness in some situations while being detrimental in others. Linked behaviors (behavioral syndromes) may be central to understanding the maintenance of behavioral variability in natural populations. The spillover hypothesis of premating sexual cannibalism by females explains genetically determined female aggression towards both prey and males: growth to a larger size translates into higher fecundity, but at the risk of insufficient sperm acquisition. Here, we use an individual-based model to determine the ecological scenarios under which this spillover strategy is more likely to evolve over a strategy in which females attack approaching males only once the female has …

Defining The Relationship Between Maternal Care Behavior And Sensory Development In Wistar Rats: Auditory Periphery Development, Eye Opening And Brain Gene Expression, Jingyun Qiu, Preethi Singh, Geng Pan, Annalisa De Paolis, Frances A. Champagne, Jia Liu, Luis Cardoso, Adrián Rodríguez-Contreras

Advanced Science Research Center

Defining the relationship between maternal care, sensory development and brain gene expression in neonates is important to understand the impact of environmental challenges during sensitive periods in early life. In this study, we used a selection approach to test the hypothesis that variation in maternal licking and grooming (LG) during the first week of life influences sensory development in Wistar rat pups. We tracked the onset of the auditory brainstem response (ABR), the timing of eye opening (EO), middle ear development with micro-CT X-ray tomography, and used qRT-PCR to monitor changes in gene expression of the hypoxia-sensitive pathway and neurotrophin …

The Roles Of Host Species, Geographic Scale And Environmental Stressors In Shaping The Composition Of Coral Microbiomes, Alicia Marie Riegel Parker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reef-building corals are long-lived and may take many centuries to adapt, making them especially susceptible to climate change. However, corals host microbial symbionts that can change quickly, potentially speeding acclimation. My dissertation aimed to determine the degree of coevolution and flexibility between corals and their microbiomes among hosts, across space, and in response to stress.

Microbial communities are usually surveyed by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene, however the PCR primers used also amplify coral DNA, thereby limiting prokaryotic read coverage. To mitigate this contamination, I designed a peptide nucleic acid clamp that increased the recovery of bacterial reads by 2-11x …

Risk Assessment And The Effects Of Refuge Availability On The Defensive Behaviors Of The Southern Unstriped Scorpion (Vaejovis Carolinianus), David R. Nelsen, Emily M. David, Chad N. Harty, Joseph B. Hector, Aaron G. Corbit

Faculty Works

Selection should favor individuals that acquire, process, and act on relevant environmental signals to avoid predation. Studies have found that scorpions control their use of venom: both when it is released and the total volume expelled. However, this research has not included how a scorpion’s awareness of environmental features influences these decisions. The current study tested 18 Vaejovis carolinianus scorpions (nine females and nine males) by placing them in circular arenas supplied with varying numbers (zero, two, or four) of square refuges and by tracking their movements overnight. The following morning, defensive behaviors were elicited by prodding scorpions on the …

Foliar Application Of Low Concentrations Of Titanium Dioxide And Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles To The Common Sunflower Under Field Conditions, Marek Kolenčík, Dávid Ernst, Martin Urík, Ľuba Ďurišová, Marek Bujdoš, Martin Šebesta, Edmund Dobročka, Samuel Kšiňan, Ramakanth Illa, Qian Yu, Huan Feng, Ivan Černý, Veronika Holišová, Gabriela Kratošová

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Nano-fertilisers have only recently been introduced to intensify plant production, and there still remains inadequate scientific knowledge on their plant-related effects. This paper therefore compares the effects of two nano-fertilisers on common sunflower production under field conditions. The benefits arising from the foliar application of micronutrient-based zinc oxide fertiliser were compared with those from the titanium dioxide plant-growth enhancer. Both the zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) were delivered by foliar application in nano-size at a concentration of 2.6 mg·L⁻¹. The foliar-applied nanoparticles (NPs) had good crystallinity and a mean size distribution under 30 nm. …

Host Plant Defense Produces Species-Specific Alterations To Flight Muscle Protein Structure And Flight-Related Fitness Traits Of Two Armyworms, Scott L. Portman, Gary W. Felton, Rupesh R. Kariyat, James H. Marden

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Insects manifest phenotypic plasticity in their development and behavior in response to plant defenses, via molecular mechanisms that produce tissue-specific changes. Phenotypic changes might vary between species that differ in their preferred hosts and these effects could extend beyond larval stages. To test this,we manipulated the diet of southern armyworm(SAW; Spodoptera eridania) and fall armyworm (FAW; Spodoptera frugiperda) using a tomato mutant for jasmonic acid plant defense pathway (def1), and wild-type plants, and then quantified gene expression of Troponin t (Tnt) and flightmusclemetabolismof the adult insects. Differences in Tnt spliceform ratios in insect flight muscles correlate with changes to flight …

Glucocorticoids, Energy Metabolites, And Immunity Vary Across Allostatic States For Plateau Side-Blotched Lizards (Uta Stansburiana Uniformis) Residing In A Heterogeneous Thermal Environment, Susannah S. French, Spencer B. Hudson

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Reptiles rely on thermal heat exchange to achieve body temperatures (Tbody) conducive to maintaining homeostasis. Diurnal changes in the thermal environment are therefore liable to influence allostatic mediation of survival processes (e.g., immunity) during environmental challenges or stressors. However, the extent to which Tbody prompts individual variation in physiology remains largely unexplored in reptiles. Our study tested how circulating energy-mobilizing hormone, energy metabolites, and immunity can vary across basal and stress-induced allostatic states for plateau side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana uniformis) residing in a heterogeneous thermal environment. We collected baseline and acute stress blood samples from male lizards to compare changes …

Further Evaluation Of A Dry Vacuuming Technique For Recovery Of Dna From Handwritten Documents, Christian Hopkins

Student Theses

A previously developed, non-destructive, homemade vacuum method for collecting biological material from handwritten documents had promising DNA results for white copy paper, preserved indented writing, and latent prints. Prior to casework implementation, additional validation experiments are warranted and here the method was tested for different paper substrates. This work describes testing of notebook paper, bank deposit slips, magazine pages, and manila envelopes. The quantity of recovered DNA varied from donor to donor, but the mean quantities showed a trend that can be explained by the different sizes and surface properties of the tested paper types. The rougher paper type, like …

A Mechanistic And Genomic Analysis Of Molluscum Contagiosum Virus Immune Evasion, Ian Benjamin Harvey

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) is a common human-specific poxvirus with a proclivity forinfecting children and the immune-compromised. A characteristic MCV infection is restricted tothe epidermal layers of the skin and can persist for weeks to years in an otherwise healthyindividual. The high clinical burden of MCV is at odds with our limited knowledge regarding howit successfully evades the human immune response, which is in part due to the lack of an animalmodel or cell line to propagate the virus. Through this dissertation, we have uncovered andcharacterized a novel mechanism by which MC80, a protein encoded by MCV, downregulateshost MHC-I surface …

Modeling Her2 Mutations In Colorectal Cancer Using A Her2 Transgenic Mouse Model And Gastrointestinal Organoids, Elisa Murray

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Amplification or mutations in members of the epidermal growth factor receptor family, such as HER2, have been identified in several human diseases. In particular, mutations in the intracellular kinase domain have been identified in breast, colon, and lung cancers. The Cancer Genome Atlas has identified HER2 mutations or gene amplification in seven percent of colon cancer patients. These mutations are well known to promote enhanced cell growth and transformation of colon cancer cell lines. Previous studies have found HER2 mutations to confer anchorage independent growth and activation of downstream signaling pathways such as MAPK. Although HER2 mutations have been extensively …

Characterizing The Relationship Between Gut Microbiota Development And Healthy Growth, Hao-Wei Chang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Childhood undernutrition accounts for more than 45% of deaths in children under the age of ve. Children who receive current therapeutic treatment and survive often have long-term complications. These survivors usually exhibit stunted growth, impaired cognitive development and are at risk for immune dysfunction, obesity and associated metabolic abnormalities. Recent studies have revealed a causal relationship between development of the gut microbiota and healthy growth. However, standard therapeutic foods were not designed with a consideration of the developmental biology of the gut microbial community and have limited ef cacy in repairing the perturbed microbiota of undernourished children.We hypothesized that repairing …

Wnt/_-Catenin Mediated Regulation Of Murine And Human Cardiac Electrophysiology And Arrhythmogenesis, Gang Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cardiac arrhythmias affects millions of Americans and can lead to sudden cardiac death, accounting for more than 300,000 deaths annually. Despite the vast knowledge available for cardiac disease and associated arrhythmias, very few effective therapies exist. Current interventions include cardioverter defibrillators and antiarrhythmic drugs targeting ion channels or the _-adrenergic pathway. In most acquired and inherited arrhythmias, molecular signaling pathways are perturbed. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of how these signaling pathways regulate cardiac electrophysiology. Therefore, a better understanding of major signaling pathways governing cardiac development or dysregulated in cardiac disease could lead to novel therapeutics for …

The Role Of The Circadian Clock Protein Rev-Erba In Neuroinflammation & Synaptic Health, Percy Griffin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Circadian rhythms are cycles of physiological activity that are conserved across all of life’s taxa – ranging from cyanobacteria to humans - due to their importance. They are conserved to allow organisms to maximize their capacity to obtain resources in their environment. In mammals, light and dark input into the retina is the strongest synchronizer of circadian rhythms. On the molecular level, this tightly regulated transcriptional-translational feedback loop is orchestrated by proteins with cyclical expression. The loss of these proteins has functional consequences on human health and diseases.Recently, associations have been made between circadian proteins and a host of pathological …

The Good, The Brown, And The Healthy: Understanding Non-Thermogenic Brown Adipose Function In Obese Mice, Caryn Nicole Carson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Genetic and environmental factors heavily intertwine to affect metabolic homeostasis. To tease out the exact interactions between these two realms of influence, researchers often compare how one or multiple different inbred mouse strains react to various diets. An observation consistently seen across multiple strains on the same diet can reasonably be considered a general dietary effect, whereas an observation seen only in one strain of mice is more likely to result from a genetic cause or gene-by-environment interaction. Similarly to humans, a high fat diet causes many mouse strains to develop obesity and poor metabolic health, with varying degrees of …

The Role Of Escrt-Iii-Like Subunit Ist1 In Membrane Trafficking Pathways, Amy Kate Clippinger

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

ESCRTs (Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport) are a modular set of proteins with membrane remodeling activities that include the formation and release of intralumenal vesicles (ILVs) to generate multivesicular endosomes. ESCRT-III filaments have an established role in membrane fission for ILV formation and the topologically related processes of viral budding and cytokinesis. Among the 12 ESCRT-III proteins most have established roles in ILV formation, but the cellular roles of IST1 remain elusive. We found that IST1 and another ESCRT-III subunit CHMP1B form filaments that spiral around the outside or cytoplasmic surface of membrane tubules. Consistent with a role in …

Mechanisms Of Sting-Associated Vasculopathy And Immunodeficiency, Brock Gordon Bennion

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

STING N153S in mice and STING N154S in humans cause spontaneous autoimmunity. Specifically, these mutations reduce the numbers of T cells and NK cells, and cause lung disease. However, mice develop perivascular lung inflammation that is distinct from the pulmonary fibrosis observed in human patients. Viral infections are known to exacerbate autoimmunity and foment pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore, we hypothesized that exposure to a virus may influence STING N153S disease in mice. To test this, we infected STING N153S animals with the gammaherpesvirus family member, gHV68, and found that 14 days post infection pulmonary fibrosis was readily observed by histological staining. …

The Role Of Cdx4 During Patterning Of Definitive Hemogenic Mesoderm, John Philip Creamer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The current standard of treatment for a variety of hematopoietic malignancies and genetic disorders is allogenic bone marrow transplantation, where donor hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) engraft within the host and give rise to all of them hematopoietic lineages necessary for homeostasis. In many cases, finding a compatible human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching donor is not possible, due to the large amount of genetic variation at those loci, but with the advent of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), unlimited sources of patient matched cells can be derived. Hematopoietic differentiations of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have been shown to recapitulate the …