Biology Commons^™

Finite Element Analysis Of Impact Resistant Composites Inspired By Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Nandati Shrestha

Thinking Matters Symposium

The fist-like club of the peacock mantis shrimp, a 5-inch marine crustacean, can strike its prey with speed faster than a .22-caliber bullet with an impact force more than 1,000 times its own weight. Although these creatures punch so fast that it even boils the water, they don’t take any damage. This incredible insusceptibility is due to the arrangement of mineralized fiber layers in which each fibrous layer is laid at a slightly rotated angle to form a helicoidal structure that acts as a shock absorber for the club. The goal is to perform a finite element analysis to investigate …

Perivascular Adipose Tissue In Relation To Diet, Thermogenesis And Cardiovascular Health, Ginger Paquette, Caitlin Stieber, Ashely Soucy, Benjamin Tero, Lucy Liaw

Thinking Matters Symposium

Adipose tissue is a diverse and crucial component to vascular health due to its role in energy storage and heat production. The primary function of white adipose tissue (WAT) is energy storage while the function of mitochondria-rich brown adipose tissue (BAT) is heat production. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), which surrounds blood vessels, contains both WAT and BAT adipocytes. Dietary calorie restriction is associated with increased lifespan with decreased adiposity. Increased prevalence of WAT-like PVAT, due to high-fat diets and obesity, leads to increased metabolic disfunction and cardiovascular-disease. We used a calorie-restriction model in C57BL6/J mice to test the hypothesis that …

Mems Directional Acoustic Sensors, Colby Damren

Thinking Matters Symposium

The purpose of my project is to test and verify two Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) microphones. The two MEMS devices are biomimetic microphones that imitate the eardrums of the Ormia Ochracea, a parasitic fly that listens for host crickets to lay their eggs. The MEMS microphones mimic the eardrum spacing of the Ormia Ochracea with a spacing of 1000um. This is roughly twice the opening of the Ormia Ochracea. The microphones will be tested for directionality inside a wooden box. This box will be lined with beveled foam to prevent any echo or outside noise from interfering with the results. These results …

Black-Capped Chickadee (Parus Atricapillus) Food Preference, Isabelle Gilbert

Thinking Matters Symposium

All animals must make decisions on where to find, select, capture, and eat food. These factors contribute to a species’ food preference, such as making decisions on what food to eat based on calories. Optimal foraging theory predicts how an animal behaves when searching for food, including optimization of food type, patch choice, time spent in patches, and movement. All animals also make decisions based on predation risk by avoiding predators and making trade-offs on time spent searching for, pursuing, and handling food. The objective of my study is to examine food preference of black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus). Birds may …

The Evolution Of Mimicry; The Doublesex Gene, Aisha Hill

Thinking Matters Symposium

Many butterfly species use mimicry in order to increase their chance of survival. In Batesian mimicry, non toxic butterflies mimic the wing patterns, colors, and shapes of another species that is toxic to predators. Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio polytes) are well-known Batesian mimics, and also display sexual dimorphism with distinct differences between the sexes. Sex limited mimicry is common. The female butterfly may mimic an inedible red-bodied swallowtail, such as the common rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae), or she may be non-mimetic. The male butterfly is non-mimetic. This is a review of recent research into the origin and evolution …

Design, Simulation And Testing Of Biomimetic Directional Acoustic Sensors, Brendan Francis

Thinking Matters Symposium

The Ormia ochracea, a species of parasitic fly, has become the focal point in sound localization research because of its finely tuned hearing abilities. The female of this species uses its super highly directional hearing to pinpoint the call of a host cricket, with hypersensitivity of frequency and phase difference, to reach and dispose of its eggs on the host. The goal of this study was to further the research of a previous Project in Professor Guvench’s group which implemented MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) technology on a chip to replicate these abilities. In this iteration, however, some commercially available …

How Genetics Plays A Role In Avian Migration, Tyler Bauersfeld

Thinking Matters Symposium

Avian migration is an adaptive response to seasonal environments, which means that birds move from one region to another on migratory routes due to environmental factors. Migratory behavior is ubiquitous within and among many bird species, and this poster will review two studies of how migratory behavior is affected on a genetic level as well as how avian migration has independently evolved in many different lineages. A study of the Eurasian blackcap from southern France demonstrates how environmental factors and parent lineages affect the genetic behavior of migration. This study also demonstrated how sedentary populations of birds have been shown …

Congenital Heart Defects And The Expression Of Ccdc141, Savanna Tillman

Honors Theses

Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are one of the most prevalent types of birth defects in the United States. Both environmental and genetic components are known to contribute to the development of CHDs. One of the ways toxins present in the environment cause CHDs is by disrupting the expression of genes known to be vital in normal cardiac morphogenesis. Thus, the identification of both toxins that cause birth defects in cardiac development and genes expressed during heart development is crucial in order to fully understand the relationship between environment and genetics as they relate to CHD. Due to their external development, …

An Examination Of Mimetic Precision And The Selective Advantages Of Imprecise Mimics, Matt Hendricks

Honors Theses

First proposed by Henry Walter Bates in 1862, Batesian mimicry refers to the scenario in which an undefended species (the mimic) gains protection from predation due to its phenotypic resemblance to a noxious species (the model). Often, the model species possess a conspicuous phenotype which serves to warn predators of the species’ danger. A great deal of research spanning many decades has been devoted to this phenomenon as it applies to coral snakes. Coral snakes are quite noxious and are distinguished from other species of snakes by their banded patterns of bright colors such as red, yellow, and black. It …

The Role Of The Dal Neurons In Modulating Circadian Rhythms In Olfactory Short-Term Memory In Drosophila Melanogaster, Cooper Ruwe

Honors Theses

Depressed short-term memory (STM) abilities during non-adaptive times of the day can significantly impact those who work occupations that require peak levels of cognitive functioning around the clock. While much work has gone into understanding the endogenous clock and circadian rhythms, there is still much to learn about the neural circuity that underlies the daily rhythms that define these regular oscillations in STM performance. The DAL neurons in the Drosophila brain are part of the circadian network and innervate the mushroom bodies (MBs), the species’ olfactory learning center, making them compelling candidates to be involved in circadian circuitry for olfactory …

A Baseline Documentation Report For The Delta Wind Birds Sky Lake Nature Reserve, James Dubberly

Honors Theses

The purpose of this baseline documentation is to conduct a report on our subject property and discuss the findings. A conservation easement is established by upholding a certain standard of a property’s current condition which makes a baseline documentation necessary for an easement to be enacted. Baseline documentation reports are used as a resource to monitor and enforce the legal agreements of the conservation easement. The subject property is currently owned by the Delta Wind Birds organization. In our scenario, this documentation report will serve to aid in the conversion of our subject property into a conservation easement in which …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Curcumin On Woodsmoke-Induced Inflammation, Melissa Lewis

Honors Theses

Inflammatory diseases caused by biomass smoke exposure and indoor air pollution affect millions of people worldwide. These diseases can be caused by the burning of biomass (plastic, wood, rubber, tobacco, etc.) for light or heat. Acrolein is a common indoor and outdoor pollutant from tobacco smoke or organic combustion. Wood smoke is hypothesized to cause inflammation since it contains high concentrations of particulate matter and gaseous compounds and are similar in size to other well-known damaging particles. Natural remedies, like curcumin, are hypothesized to be a natural remedy for combating inflammation. The goal of this research was to investigate the …

Characterization Of Cuticular Hydrocarbon Profiles In Southeastern Argentine Ant (Linepithema Humile) Colonies, Katherine R. Barrs

Honors College Theses

Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, are a globally invasive species that displaces native species and facilitates agricultural pests. Colonies occupy distinct territories with multiple nests and defend them against other colonies. Ants have a waxy coating of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) and can detect (i.e. smell) differences in these CHCs to identify their own vs foreign colonies. In the US, Argentine ants have been primarily studied in California where they only form four massive colonies showing mutual aggression, some spanning more than 500 miles. In the Southeast, colony recognition remains largely unexplored; however, we have identified several smaller colonies based on …

Stuck In Hot Water: Environmental Conditions Affecting Mysid Populations, Kristian Tomasic, Lauren Flynn, Jordan Pagliuca

Biology Student Scholarship

Kristian Tomasic ’21, Biology major
Lauren Flynn ’21, Biology major
Jordan Pagliuca ’21, Biology and Mathematics major
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elisabeth Arévalo

The Effects Of Maternal Behavior And Environmental Enrichment On Behavior And Cognition In Sprague-Dawley Rats, Kathryn C. Bates

Longwood Senior Theses

Early environments critically impact the development of many organisms. Exposure to varying maternal care behaviors and environmental enrichments can cause persisting changes throughout a rat’s life. The current study examines the effect of high and low levels of maternal care and environmental enrichment on anxiety, resilience, spatial memory, and non-spatial memory. Maternal rats were identified as Good or Bad mothers based on their pup retrieval speed. Their pups were then sorted by maternal care they experienced and placed into two housing conditions: enriched, and control (resulting in four conditions total). Each group was assessed on four behavioral tests including the …

Brewing Meets Biotechnology: A Survey Of Genetic Variation In Flocculation Proteins, Sarah A. Dooley

Longwood Senior Theses

For thousands of years, yeast have been utilized for food and beverage fermentations and more recently have become important model organisms for biomedical research. A catalog of phenotypic characteristics available to brewers can be attributed to domestication and artificial selection as well as chromosomal rearrangements and evolutionary events. Flocculation, the natural capacity for yeast cells aggregate into flocs at the end of the fermentation process, has a direct effect on the final fermentation product.. In order to flocculate, yeast strains must carry genes belonging to the flocculin protein family that will promote cell-cell adhesion. The flocculin genes, FLO1, FLO5 …

Effect Of Maternal Behavior On Anxiety, Resilience, And Memory In Sprague-Dawley Rats, Dorian F. Tignor

Longwood Senior Theses

This study seeks to determine the extent that maternal care of rodents influences anxiety levels, memory, and resiliency in the next generation. After categorizing maternal rats as Good and Bad mothers through a pup recognition test, they and their pups were put through a battery of behavioral tasks to assess anxiety (Elevated Plus Maze), memory (Novel Object Preference Test and Object Location Memory Task), and resiliency (Forced Swim Test). Preliminary results found that Good mothers have superior spatial and non-spatial memory in comparison to the Bad mothers. In addition, the pups raised by Good mothers showed greater resilience in comparison …

Effects Of Tropical Cyclones On Incubation And Hatch Frequency Of Marine Turtles In Broward County, Fl: An Exploratory Look For Potential Cues Of Environmentally Cued Hatching (Ech), Alexis Peterson

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Due to climate change and warming sea surface temperatures (SST), the intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic are continuing to increase. Tropical cyclones have many direct and indirect effects on coastal and marine species, such as sea turtles. Sea turtles are extremely vulnerable to climate change, due to having life history, physiology, and behavioral traits that are heavily influenced by environmental factors (Fuentes and Porter 2013). This study examined whether tropical cyclones serve as a triggering event for environmentally cued hatching (ECH) in loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonia mydas) turtle nests …

Towards Complete And Error-Free Genome Assemblies Of All Vertebrate Species, Arang Rhie, Shane A. Mccarthy, Olivier Fedrigo, Joana Damas, Giulio Formenti, Sergey Koren, Marcela Uliano-Silva, William Chow, Arkarachai Fungtammasan, Juwan Kim, Chul Lee, Byung June Ko, Mark Chaisson, Gregory L. Gedman, Lindsey J. Cantin, Francoise Thibaud-Nissen, Leanne Haggerty, Iliana Bista, Michelle Smith, Bettina Haase, Jacquelyn Mountcastle, Sylke Winkler, Sadye Paez, Jason Howard, Sonja C. Vernes, Tanya M. Lama, Frank Grutzner, Wesley C. Warren, Christopher N. Balakrishnan, Dave Burt, Julia M. George, Matthew T. Biegler

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

High-quality and complete reference genome assemblies are fundamental for the application of genomics to biology, disease, and biodiversity conservation. However, such assemblies are available for only a few non-microbial species1–4. To address this issue, the international Genome 10K (G10K) consortium5,6 has worked over a five-year period to evaluate and develop cost-effective methods for assembling highly accurate and nearly complete reference genomes. Here we present lessons learned from generating assemblies for 16 species that represent six major vertebrate lineages. We confirm that long-read sequencing technologies are essential for maximizing genome quality, and that unresolved complex repeats and haplotype heterozygosity are major …

Elbow Motion In Walking Alligators, Thao Pham, Luciana Emmanuelli, Megan Rowlings, Nina Pitre

Biology Student Scholarship

Thao Pham ’21, Biology
Megan Rowlings ’21, Biology
Nina Pitre ’22, Biology
Luciana Emmanuelli ’23, Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Baier, Biology

Crocodylia regularly use a “high-walk” during terrestrial locomotion unlike other non-mammals, thus drawing interest from both biomechanical and evolutionary research communities. Here, we employ the highly accurate XROMM (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology) method to measure joint motion between the three forelimb bones (humerus, ulna, and radius) of alligators performing high-walks on a treadmill. This method literally “re-animates” bone motion by combining bi-planar X-ray video with digital bone models from CT scans in the animation program Maya (Autodesk).

Comparable Response Of Wild Rodent Gut Microbiome To Anthropogenic Habitat Contamination, Anton Lavrinienko, Ann Hämäläinen, Rasmus Hindstrom, Eugene Tukalenko, Zbyszek Boratynski, Kati Kivisaari, Timothy Mousseau, Phillip C. Watts, Tapio Mappes

Faculty Publications

Species identity is thought to dominate over environment in shaping wild rodent gut microbiota, but it remains unknown whether the responses of host gut microbiota to shared anthropogenic habitat impacts are species-specific or if the general gut microbiota response is similar across host species. Here, we compare the influence of exposure to radionuclide contamination on the gut microbiota of four wild mouse species: Apodemus flavicollis, A. sylvaticus, A. speciosus and A. argenteus. Building on the evidence that radiation impacts bank vole (Myodes glareolus) gut microbiota, we hypothesized that radiation exposure has a general impact on rodent gut microbiota. Because we …

The Effect Of Color Morph On Behavior Interactions In Red-Backed Salamanders (Plethodon Cinereus), Taylor M. Aliferis

Honors Theses

Studies in behavioral ecology provide critical information regarding a species’ territoriality, predator-prey interactions, and reproduction. Red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) are a polymorphic terrestrial amphibian whose behavioral interactions have long been studied to provide insights on the processes that structure salamander populations, which are often cryptic and difficult to study. However, research regarding the effect of coloration on these interactions is more limited, but potentially extremely important for studies of population dynamics and speciation in terrestrial salamanders. In this study, aggressive and submissive behaviors of adult male red-backed salamanders in five different color morph treatment pairings were observed to …

A Novel Application Of Galleria Mellonella Larvae To Study Pathogenesis Of Rickettsia Rickettsii Infection, Jacob M. Jones

Honors College Theses

Rickettsia are obligate intracellular tick-borne bacteria that cause acute undifferentiated febrile illness accompanied by headache, malaise, myalgias, and disseminated endothelial infection. Immune responses to Rickettsia and pathogenesis of rickettsioses are not fully understood. Current work with Rickettsia is limited to vertebrate models that are strictly regulated and have low throughput. Since the innate immune system of vertebrates retains striking similarities with the immune response in insects, invertebrates are being used to study host responses to various pathogens. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if larvae of the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella (GML) can be used as an …

Modeling The Problem Of Integral Geometry On A Family Of Hyperbolic And Spherical Curves, Azamat Pirimbetov, N. Uteuliev, G. Djaykov

Karakalpak Scientific Journal

The problems of integral geometry in a strip on a family of curves of hyperbolic and spherical type are considered which have numerous applications in problems of geophysics, thermoacoustic and photoacoustic tomography. Explicit formulas are obtained for the Fourier image of the solution of integral geometry problems in the class of smooth compactly supported functions. Further, the obtained formulas are investigated for stability using numerical methods. To solve the problems, algorithms are constructed. Numerical and graphical results of applying these algorithms to solving the problems are presented.

Protein-Protein Interaction Important For Cytokinesis, Bethany Huinker

Undergraduate Research Conference at Missouri S&T

During cytokinesis a ring containing actin and myosin forms and contracts, pinching the cell into two daughter cells. In budding yeast cells the gene Iqg1 is a gene necessary for proper actin ring formation and contraction. We have shown that Iqg1 interacts with the yeast formin proteins. This project will determine which domains of Iqg1 mediate the protein-protein interactions, which is important to understand the function of the binding between Iqg1 and formins in cytokinesis. We will use a GST pull down assay to study the binding of Iqg1 to the yeast formins Bni1 and Bnr1. We will compare binding …

Gender And Ethnicity Bias In Wildland Fire Journals, Elizabeth Feth

Undergraduate Research Conference at Missouri S&T

Despite numerous efforts to improve both ethnic and gender diversity, STEM continues to be dominated by white men, particularly in field-based and management-driven disciplines of biology. The Association for Fire Ecology and the International Association for Wildland Fire have both formed diversity and inclusion committees since 2010 to examine and promote a more inclusive and balanced field; however, progress in these arenas can be slow. We examined peer reviewer discrimination against women and ethnic minorities in the International Journal of Wildland Fire in papers published from 2010 to 2019 utilizing the number of days in review compared against the total …

Altered Gametogenesis Gene Expression Of The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) In Response To Plastic Exposure, Marissa Kordal

Transformations: Presentation Slides

Marine plastic pollution leaches chemicals that cause detrimental effects such as reduced fecundity and feminization of males in marine species. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is a valuable species to study the effects of plastic on sex differentiation because it is a protandric hermaphrodite that undergoes gametogenesis yearly. My objective was to investigate a potential cause of an observed female-skew in the sex ratio of first year oysters exposed to plastic by measuring differential gene expression of eight gametogenesis genes from oysters grown on plastic compared to those on shell. Plastic exposure increased the expression of genes involved in egg …

The Big Picture: Consolidating National Government And Cites Records Of Animal Trade In The Philippines From 1975 To 2019, Ronald Allan L. Cruz, Catherine Genevieve B. Lagunzad

Biology Faculty Publications

The Philippines has exceptionally high biodiversity but is also a hotspot. It is a recognized source; destination; and transit point for the global wildlife trade; which drives biodiversity loss. There is an abundance of data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on the Philippines; but this data has not been assessed for historical trends. Confiscation data reflecting the illegal trade is scarcer; coming from recent (2008 onward) records of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources ___ Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) and the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD). CITES data …

Co-Occurrence Of In-Stream Nitrogen Fixation And Denitrification Across A Nitrogen Gradient In A Western U.S. Watershed, 2015 - 2016, Erin K. Eberhard, Amy Marcarelli, Colden V. Baxter

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This data was collected as part of the NSF CAREER Grant DEB 14-51919 to Amy Marcarelli to evaluate if nitrogen fixation and denitrification co-occur in streams across a gradient of nitrate concentrations. This data was collected during summer 2015 and 2016 in the Portneuf River watershed near Pocatello, ID. In summer 2015, rates of nitrogen fixation were only measured on rock substrate and denitrification only on sediment substrate. In summer 2016, both process rates were measured on both rock and sediment substrate to more accurately capture variation in rates.

Investigation Into The Akirin Subcellular Localization And Developmental Interactions, Riley Wildeman

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Akirin is a highly conserved nuclear protein ubiquitously expressed in nonfungal eukaryotic species and is known to be involved in many biological processes such as embryonic muscle patterning and innate immune function. Akirin functionality is essential for the prevention of disease and developmental defects. This investigation focused on both the subcellular localization of Akirin based on a putative nuclear localization signal and the genetic interaction between Akirin and the Nucleosome Remodeling Deacetylase (NuRD) complex. Through transfection of Drosophila S2 cells with Akirin mutant constructs we were able to visualize the localization patterns of Akirin and how the patterns relate to …