Biology Commons^™

The Effect Of An Acidified-Gypsum Mixture On Broiler Litter Urease-Producing Bacteria And Nitrogen Mineralization, Taylor Chapman, Christopher D. Burt, Dave Bachoon, Miguel L. Cabrera, Christopher Horacek

Graduate Research Showcase

Broiler chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) production is one of the largest agricultural sectors in the state of Georgia. Broiler litter produced by broiler facilities is rich in organic nitrogen (N), specifically urea, which can be mineralized by poultry litter urease-producing bacteria (PLUP) forming ammoniacal-N (NH₃/NH₄⁺). A large portion of NH₃/NH₄⁺ can be lost as ammonia (NH₃) gas, which negatively impacts bird health and profitability. The release of NH₃ from litter is strongly influenced by the pH of the litter. Flue-gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) has been suggested …

Can Robotic Exoskeletons Improve Gait In Ms Patients?, Chana Weinberg

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder that affects about one million people in the United States. The disease results from an abnormal immune response where T cells damage the myelin sheath in the central nervous system, causing scarring. The lesions can occur in any part of the brain or spinal cord, and thus affects every patient differently. One of the most detrimental effects the disease has on patients’ lives is the decreased ability to walk. There has been research and treatments to manage pain and slow progression of the disease, but little progress has been made to enable MS …

Enzybiotic Therapy As Treatment For Mrsa, Rachel Finkelstein

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

This paper reviews the antibacterial potential of enzybiotics against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Due to the increasing occurrence of antibiotic resistance, researchers are looking to make use of the natural antibacterial qualities of virus bacteriophages, viral derived lysins, and antimicrobial peptides to fight MRSA infections. The efficacy of bacteriophages, endolysins, and bacteriocins as potential antibacterial agents against MRSA was extensively researched through Touro’s online library database. Each of their mechanisms of action allows them to effectively lyse S. aureus cells, by essentially disrupting the peptidoglycan in the cell wall, causing it to burst. The narrow host range of these antimicrobials …

Plastid Phylogenomics Of The Gynoxoid Group (Senecioneae, Asteraceae) Highlights The Importance Of Motif-Based Sequence Alignment Amid Low Genetic Distances, Belen Escobari, Thomas Borsch, Taylor Quedensley, Michael Gruenstaeudl

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Premise The genus Gynoxys and relatives form a species-rich lineage of Andean shrubs and trees with low genetic distances within the sunflower subtribe Tussilaginineae. Previous molecular phylogenetic investigations of the Tussilaginineae have included few, if any, representatives of this Gynoxoid group or reconstructed ambiguous patterns of relationships for it. Methods We sequenced complete plastid genomes of 21 species of the Gynoxoid group and related Tussilaginineae and conducted detailed comparisons of the phylogenetic relationships supported by the gene, intron, and intergenic spacer partitions of these genomes. We also evaluated the impact of manual, motif-based adjustments of automatic DNA sequence alignments on …

Airpg: Automatically Accessing The Inverted Repeats Of Archived Plastid Genomes, Tilman Mehl, Michael Gruenstaeudl

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

In most flowering plants, the plastid genome exhibits a quadripartite genome structure, comprising a large and a small single copy as well as two inverted repeat regions. Thousands of plastid genomes have been sequenced and submitted to public sequence repositories in recent years. The quality of sequence annotations in many of these submissions is known to be problematic, especially regarding annotations that specify the length and location of the inverted repeats: such annotations are either missing or portray the length or location of the repeats incorrectly. However, many biological investigations employ publicly available plastid genomes at face value and implicitly …

Data To Accompany: "Keeping It Cool To Take The Heat: Tropical Lizards Have Greater Thermal Tolerance In Habitats With Lower Ambient Temperatures", Lindsey Swierk

Biological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Quantitative Assessment Of Aphid Parasitoids And Predators In Central Oklahoma Wheat Fields During Five Growing Seasons, Norman C. Elliott, Kristopher L. Giles, Kristen A. Baum, Sarah Elzay

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the most widely grown crop in Oklahoma and typically is planted in autumn and harvested in June. Wheat in Oklahoma is often infested by insect pests, the most important of which are the cereal aphids – greenbug, Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), and bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (L.). We sampled a total of 69 wheat fields in central Oklahoma during five wheat-growing seasons. The number of wheat fields sampled ranged from seven in the 2016-2017 growing season to 24 fields in the 2009-2010 growing season. We used a D-vac suction sampler to collect aphids …

Dance Training And Delayed Maturation, Shira Heavenrich

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

The physiological effects of early childhood dance training are constantly being explored and adjusted. It was observed that children in training experience a higher than normal percentage of delayed maturation, both in puberty and bone development. It was suggested that the environmental conditions in which dancers practice, such as malnutrition and too much time spent indoors, as well as biological factors, contribute to the hormonal and cellular disruptions responsible for late development. Undernourishment, as is common in dancers, was found to have a direct correlation with reproductive hormone levels, including reduction in gonadotropin- releasing hormone secretion as well as lower …

What Is The Safest And Most Effective Method Of Repairing Myelomeningocele?, Matti Klein

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Spina bifida is one of the most common NTD’s (neural tube defects) to occur during embryonic development, when the neural tube fails to close properly during neurulation. Myelomeningocele is the most severe form of spina bifida. Characterized by an open posterior neuropore with meninges and parts of the spinal cord protruding from the fetus’s body, it manifests in a variety of physical and neurological symptoms that vary both by the individual and by the state of the lesion. Until the late 1990’s, the standard course of treatment was surgical closure of the lesion at birth, followed by standard protocols and …

Osteoporosis: A Comprehensive Review, Eliyahu Greenberg

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeleton that becomes more common with advanced age, especially in postmenopausal women. Osteoporosis increases the risk of fractures, thereby reducing the quality of life for those who suffer from it. Due to the aging population, direct costs resulting from osteoporosis are projected to reach upward of $25 billion per year by 2025. The main pharmaceuticals primarily target osteoclasts. Exercise may be an effective method of preventing osteoporosis, although more research needs to be done. More research should be conducted to explore potential ways to enhance osteoblastic activity as a method to treat and/or reverse …

Disruption Of Cellular P-Bodies During An Adenovirus Infection​, La`Quita Randolph, Kevin Neubrecht, Kasey A. Karen

Graduate Research Showcase

Adenovirus has made major contributions in medicine by serving as a model DNA virus to study other viruses, such as human papillomavirus (HPV). Adenoviruses are a diverse family of nonenveloped, double-stranded DNA viruses that are ubiquitous to animals and humans. There are over 67 serotypes of human adenoviruses that can cause a variety of illnesses including, gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis and respiratory infections. Adenovirus can cause these infections by invading host cells and producing an environment that is favorable for viral replication. During the early phases of infection, adenovirus expresses various viral proteins such as E4 11k, which has multiple functions. One …

Linking Magnetoreception To Cacna1d Homolog Protein Insertions In Vertebrates, Annabelle S. Levin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

It is well-established that numerous animals can perceive the geomagnetic field. This ability, called magnetoreception, has been studied extensively but the mechanisms for how animals perceive the geomagnetic field remain unclear. Understanding magnetoreception is vital for characterizing the navigational abilities of animals and how biological systems interact with magnetic fields. Recent research examining pigeons, an animal is known to exhibit a magnetic sense, identified two interesting genes that may be involved in magnetoreception. One of these genes, calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha1 D (CACNA1D), contains a short amino acid insertion (designated by the amino acids -KKER) in animals known to …

The Effects Of Roadways On The Spatial And Temporal Movement Patterns Of Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Horridus), Anna F. Tipton, Dominic L. Desantis

Graduate Research Showcase

Roadways are among the most widespread and disruptive anthropogenic land use features that influence the behavior and movement of wildlife. Negative impacts include vehicle-induced mortality, habitat destruction and fragmentation, and creating barriers to movement which can have far-reaching sub-lethal effects. In an effort to improve upon historical methods of evaluating the influence of prominent landscape features, such as roads, on the movement of small and secretive wildlife, we are using a novel integration of emerging spatial analyses and tri-axial accelerometry in Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) from central Georgia. We used dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models to estimate motion …

Consequences Of Stress-Induced Trait Plasticity In Cultivated Helianthus, Gillian Gomer

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES) describes the continuous range of leaf ecophysiological strategies that plants across the globe utilize to achieve a net-positive return on their resource investment. This spectrum is measured by traits such as leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen, and leaf lifespan. Unsuitable leaf trait combinations are selected against in nature due to a net-loss on the return of initial resource investment, while some potentially extremely effective trait combinations may not be possible due to genetic constraints. Existing genetic variation in LES traits, however, suggests the spectrum may be less rigid than previously expected. To test this, …

Validating An Automated Classification System For Snake Movement Behavior: Refining And Extending The Radio Telemetry-Accelerometry Framework, Dominic L. Desantis

College of Arts and Sciences

An animal’s behavioral decisions, such as when, why, and how individuals move through their environment, are mediated by a complex interplay between internal (e.g., sex, physiological state, motivational state) and external (e.g., environmental conditions, predation, competition) factors. A detailed understanding of the causes and consequences of these decisions for many species has historically been precluded by methodological constraints. However, a recent wave of advancements in sensor technologies circumvents many of these traditional limitations and has spurred the emerging field of biologging science. Animal-attached dataloggers (or biologgers) give researchers the ability to remotely monitor an individual’s physiology and behavior in the …

Epitranscriptomic Writer Regulation Of Gene Expression In Escherichia Coli, William Eugene Gasperi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The epitranscriptome is composed of enzyme catalyzed RNA modifications that can regulate tRNA, mRNA, and rRNA structure and function. RNA modifications can play key roles in regulating gene expression by controlling the when and how much of translation of specific transcripts. The SelU catalyzed tRNA wobble uridine (U) modification, occurs on tRNA lysine, glutamic acid, and glutamine. We have shown that E. coli deficient in selU gene are more sensitive to the antibiotic chloramphenicol (CAM) than their wild type counterparts. CAM works by inhibiting protein synthesis by binding to the ribosome and preventing peptide chain formation. We hypothesize that SelU …

Effects Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus Input On Lake Louise, Dallas, Luzerne County, Pa, Hailey Kubiski, Cosima Wiese

Student Research Poster Presentations 2021

The runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus can be detrimental to a lakes health and ability to support life (Baker, et al. 2007). Eutrophication is a product of large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous in lakes (Rice and Horgan, 2017). The purpose of this study is to examine if large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are present in Lake Louise. The proposed research question is: Are there high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in and around Lake Louise? The null hypothesis of this study is that there will be no significant difference in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in areas in and …

Pleistocene Rodents From Southeast Georgia, Parker Rhinehart

Graduate Research Showcase

Late-Pleistocene fossil sites are uncommon in Georgia. However, Clark Quarry, a locality near Brunswick, Georgia, has yielded a large and diverse collection of vertebrate skeletal material dominated by cranial and post-cranial fossils of Columbian mammoths (Mammathus columbi) and giant bison (Bison latifrons). Screen washing of the fossiliferous sediment associated with the bones of the megafauna has produced a large number of microfossils. Here I describe fossil rodents from Clark Quarry. Cranial and post-cranial material of eight rodent taxa have been identified to date. Of these, five are found in the area today: Sigmodon hispidus, Peromyscus sp., …

Soil Macroinvertebrate Responses To Wildfires In The Blue Ridge Mountains, Usa, Madeline Nicole Olliff, Bruce Snyder, Mac Callaham Jr., Melanie K. Taylor

Graduate Research Showcase

Title: Soil Macroinvertebrate Responses to Wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains, USA Authors: 1Madeline N. Olliff, 1Bruce A. Snyder, 2Melanie K. Taylor, and 2Mac A. Callaham

1Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, USA; 2USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Athens, Georgia, USA

Abstract: Wildfires are of increasing concern in light of climate change, more frequent late summer droughts, and increasing incidence of human ignitions. There have been few studies examining the effects of wildland fires on soil macroinvertebrates in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in spite of the importance of these animals to soil processes, and their contributions to the …

Monitoring Lake Sinclair, Margaret Blackledge

Graduate Research Showcase

Algae, a polyphyletic group of aquatic primary producers, play a great part in earth’s biosphere. They produce half of the world’s oxygen and are major contributors to aquatic biodiversity. When conditions are favorable to a species, algae will bloom. Some algal species will produce algal toxins during a bloom as a potential mechanism to concentrate carbon. Due to the integral part they play in aquatic food webs, nutrient cycling and the potential for harmful algal blooms, algal communities are monitored to determine the health and safety of aquatic environments. Lake Sinclair in middle Georgia is a good model where in …

What Common Factors May Influence The Success Of Dental Implant?, Yehuda Taavar

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

The aim of this study is to investigate the common factors that may influence the success of dental implants. Addressing these factors may potentially aid experts in the field in delivering dental implants without approaching or decreasing the number of failures. Smoking, diabetes, implant maintenance, age, and implant size have significantly influenced implant success. It is suggested that patients are advised to quit smoking at least one week before surgery to minimize risk factors. Inadequate glycemic control also contributes to periodontal destruction and is associated with the severity of peri-implant complications. However, if patients maintain good glycemic control, dental implants …

An Integrative Analysis Uncovers A New, Pseudo-Cryptic Species Of Amazonian Marmoset (Primates: Callitrichidae: Mico) From The Arc Of Deforestation, R. Costa-Araujo, J. S. Silva Jr., J. P. Boubli, R. V. Rossi, G. R. Canale, F. R. Melo, F. Bertuol, F. E. Silva, D. A. Silva, S. D. Nash, I. Sampaio, I. P. Farias, Tomas Hrbek

Biology Faculty Research

Amazonia has the richest primate fauna in the world. Nonetheless, the diversity and distribution of Amazonian primates remain little known and the scarcity of baseline data challenges their conservation. These challenges are especially acute in the Amazonian arc of deforestation, the 2500 km long southern edge of the Amazonian biome that is rapidly being deforested and converted to agricultural and pastoral landscapes. Amazonian marmosets of the genus Mico are little known endemics of this region and therefore a priority for research and conservation efforts. However, even nascent conservation efforts are hampered by taxonomic uncertainties in this group, such as the …

Choices On Sampling, Sequencing, And Analyzing Dna Influence The Estimation Of Community Composition Of Plant Fungal Symbionts, Jonathan A. Cale, Natalie Scott, Gregory J. Pec, Simon M. Landhäusser, Justine Karst

Publications: Biology

Plant root symbionts, namely mycorrhizal fungi, can be characterized using a variety of methods, but most of these rely on DNA. While Sanger sequencing still fulfills particular research objectives, next‐generation sequencing currently dominates the f ield, thus understanding how the two methods differ is important for identifying both opportunities and limitations to characterizing fungal communities. In addition to testing sequencing methods, we also examined how roots and soils may yield different fungal communities and how disturbance may affect those differences. We sequenced DNA from ectomycorrhizal fungi colonizing roots of Pinus banksiana and found that operational taxonomic unit richness was higher, …

Notch Regulates Vascular Collagen Iv Basement Membrane Through Modulation Of Lysyl Hydroxylase 3 Trafficking, Stephen J.B. Gross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collagen type IV (Col IV) is a basement membrane protein associated with early blood vessel morphogenesis and is essential for blood vessel stability. Defects in vascular Col IV deposition are the basis of heritable disorders, such as small vessel disease, marked by cerebral hemorrhage and drastically shorten lifespan. To date, little is known about how endothelial cells regulate the intracellular transport and selective secretion of Col IV in response to angiogenic cues, leaving a void in our understanding of this process. Our aim was to identify trafficking pathways that regulate Col IV deposition during angiogenic blood vessel development. We have …

Understanding Patterns And Functional Impacts Of An Invasive Tree And Its Biological Control In A Riparian System, Annie L. Henry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species have become an inextricable part of the landscape, particularly in riparian plant communities, and removal is often a key component of restoration programs. Biological control (biocontrol) is a method of removal that is often both efficient and effective. However, the impact of biocontrol on target species and indirect effects from invasive species removal can be hard to predict. While monitoring the impact of invasive species removal usually involves some species-based assessment such as changes in diversity, historically dominant species or native species, these strategies do not typically provide insight into the mechanisms underlying plant community response to removal. …

Development Of Endoplasmic Reticulum Targeted Probes And Red Fluorescent Probes For Detecting Zinc, Drew Maslar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Zinc (Zn²⁺) is the second most abundant transition metal in the body and is important in various biological functions. Fluorescent sensors based on circularly permuted fluorescent proteins (cpFPs) have been previously made to detect labile, or unbound, Zn²⁺ within the cytoplasm of cells. These sensors have proven invaluable for studying Zn²⁺, however, these sensors are limited to their use in the cytoplasm and by the fact that only green cpFP have been utilized to create fluorescent Zn²⁺ sensors. In this thesis, we use a combination of peptide targeting sequences, site-directed mutagenesis, and rational design …

Heat And Chemical Cues Enhance Germination Rates In Fire-Dependent Chaparral Species, Zachary Litwinowicz

Senior Honors Projects

Climate change has caused an increase in the frequency and intensity of fire cycles in chaparral ecosystems. In environments impacted by wildfires, some plant species depend on complex fire cues to germinate. Determining how to best replicate wildfire cues is essential to using fire-recruiter species in restoration efforts. This study examines the effects of various simulated fire cues on four chaparral species: Arctostaphylos manzanita, A. viscida, Ceanothus cuneatus, and C. jepsonii. Seeds were exposed to heat, charate, liquid smoke, or combinations of treatments. Other germination cues, such as cold exposure for all species and acid exposure for Arctostaphylos species, were …

Scalability And Performance Tradeoffs In Quantifying Relationships Between Elevation And Tidal Wetland Plant Communities, James R. Holmquist, Lisa Schile-Beers, Kevin Buffington, Meng Lu, Thomas J. Mozdzer, Jefferson Riera, Donald E. Weller, Meghan Williams, J Patrick Megonigal

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Elevation is a major driver of plant ecology and sediment dynamics in tidal wetlands, so accurate and precise spatial data are essential for assessing wetland vulnerability to sea-level rise and making forecasts. We performed survey-grade elevation and vegetation surveys of the Global Change Research Wetland, a brackish microtidal wetland in the Chesapeake Bay estuary, Maryland (USA), to both intercompare unbiased digital elevation model (DEM) creation techniques and to describe niche partitioning of several common tidal wetland plant species. We identified a tradeoff between scalability and performance in creating unbiased DEMs, with more data-intensive methods such as kriging performing better than …

Exploring Microbiome Functional Dynamics Through Space And Time With Trait-Based Theory, Leonora S. Bittleston, Zachary B. Freedman, Jessica R. Bernardin, Jacob J. Grothjan, Erica B. Young, Sydne Record, Benjamin Baiser, Sarah M. Gray

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Microbiomes play essential roles in the health and function of animal and plant hosts and drive nutrient cycling across ecosystems. Integrating novel trait-based approaches with ecological theory can facilitate the prediction of microbial functional traits important for ecosystem functioning and health. In particular, the yield-acquisition-stress (Y-A-S) framework considers dominant microbial life history strategies across gradients of resource availability and stress. However, microbiomes are dynamic, and spatial and temporal shifts in taxonomic and trait composition can affect ecosystem functions. We posit that extending the Y-A-S framework to microbiomes during succession and across biogeographic gradients can lead to generalizable rules for how …

The Dual Nature Of Metacommunity Variability, Thomas Lamy, Nathan I. Wisnoski, Riley Andrade, Max C. N. Castorani, Aldo Compagnoni, Nina Lany, Luca Marazzi, Sydne Record, Christopher M. Swan, Jonathan D. Tonkin, Nicole Voelker, Shaopeng Wang, Phoebe L. Zarnetske, Eric R. Sokol

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

There is increasing interest in measuring ecological stability to understand how communities and ecosystems respond to broad-scale global changes. One of the most common approaches is to quantify the variation through time in community or ecosystem aggregate attributes (e.g. total biomass), referred to as aggregate variability. It is now widely recognized that aggregate variability represents only one aspect of communities and ecosystems, and compositional variability, the changes in the relative frequency of species in an assemblage, is equally important. Recent contributions have also begun to explore ecological stability at regional spatial scales, where interconnected local communities form metacommunities, a key …