Biology Commons^™

Occupancy Of The Little Grass Frog (Pseudacris Ocularis), An Overlooked Longleaf Endemic, In A Managed Landscape, Anna M. Humphrey

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Amphibians are declining globally, with many declines associated with habitat loss. The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem historically covered most of the southeastern United States and supports a host of endemic amphibians. This ecosystem has declined by over 97% in the last two hundred years and many associated species have declined with it. The Little Grass Frog (Pseudacris ocularis) is a longleaf pine endemic anuran that has been understudied and under-surveyed; almost no information is known on the ecology of this species and no population studies have been conducted. My goals were to create an acoustic …

9s1r Nullomer Peptide Induces Mitochondrial Pathology, Metabolic Suppression, And Enhanced Immune Cell Infiltration, In Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Mouse Model, Nilufar Ali, Cody Wolf, Swarna Kanchan, Shivakumar R. Veerabhadraiah, Laura Bond, Matthew W. Turner, Cheryl L. Jorcyk, Greg Hampikian

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nullomers are the shortest strings of absent amino acid (aa) sequences in a species or group of species. Primes are those nullomers that have not been detected in the genome of any species. 9S1R is a 5-aa peptide prime sequence attached to 5-arginine aa, used to treat triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in an in vivo mouse model. This unique peptide, administered with a trehalose carrier (9S1R-NulloPT), offers enhanced solubility and exhibits distinct anti-cancer effects against TNBC. In our study, we investigated the effect of 9S1R-NulloPT on tumor growth, metabolism, metastatic burden, tumor immune-microenvironment (TME), and transcriptome of aggressive mouse …

Applied Soft Classes And Fuzzy Confusion In A Patchwork Semi-Arid Ecosystem: Stitching Together Classification Techniques To Preserve Ecologically-Meaningful Information, Josh Enterkine, T. Trevor Caughlin, Hamid Dashti, Nancy F. Glenn

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dryland ecosystems have complex vegetation communities, including subtle transitions between communities and heterogeneous coverage of key functional groups. This complexity challenges the capacity of remote sensing to represent land cover in a meaningful way. Many remote sensing methods to map vegetation in drylands simplify fractional cover into a small number of functional groups that may overlook key ecological communities. Here, we investigate a remote sensing process that further advances our understanding of the link between remote sensing and ecologic community types in drylands. We propose a method using k-means clustering to establish soft classes of vegetation cover communities from detailed …

Genomic Surveillance Of Sars-Cov-2 Sequence Variants At Universities In Southwest Idaho, Jennifer R. Chase, Laura Bond, Daniel J. Vail, Milan Sengthep, Adriana Rodriguez, Joe Christianson, Stephanie F. Hudon, Julia Thom Oxford

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on major metropolitan areas is broadly reported and readily available, regions with lower populations and more remote areas in the United States are understudied. The objective of this study is to determine the progression of SARS-CoV-2 sequence variants in a frontier and remote intermountain west state among university-associated communities. This study was conducted at two intermountain west universities from 2020 to 2022. Positive SARS-CoV-2 samples were confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and variants were identified by the next-generation sequencing of viral genomes. Positive results were obtained for 5355 samples, representing …

An Aggregation Of The Pandalid Shrimp, Heterocarpus Ensifer, On Deep Reef Habitats Of The West Florida Slope, Eastern Gulf Of Mexico, Steve W. Ross

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Heterocarpus ensifer A. Milne—Edwards (1881) (Crustacea: Pandalidae), armed nylon shrimp, is widely distributed in the western and eastern North Atlantic Ocean. In the western Atlantic this shrimp occurs from off North Carolina to Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), western Bahamas, and Caribbean Sea at depths of 170—885 m. Despite its widespread occurrence, ecology or biology information for this species are sparse, and in situ observations of abundance, behavior and habitat preferences are particularly lacking. During extensive submersible and ROV observations on and near deep—reefs in the north—central and eastern GOM, a remarkably large aggregation of H. ensifer …

Reaching Across The Divide: Tools For Bridging Structural And Viral Genomics Using A Combination Of Biophysical Principles And Machine Learning, Diana Yvette Lee

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Bacteriophages are the most ubiquitous biological entity on the planet, but most viruses found in nature cannot be cultured in the laboratory and encode genes whose sequences lack similarity with current nucleotide and protein databases. New predictive methods are thus necessary to determine the phenotype of viruses. In this work, we leverage the physical geometrical constraints of viruses to quantify the correlation between the geometric and genomic characteristics of tailed phages, and predict physical features such as architecture and genome length of uncultured viruses using allometric models and machine learning algorithms. Here, we present a model to predict the T-number …

Characterization Of Nuclear Microsatellites In Marchantia Polymorpha (Liverwort) With Additional Trans-Specific Analyses, Nicole Rodriguez Ortiz, Niharika Sharma, Tian Xiong Zheng, James J. Campanella

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Microsatellites are present in mitochondria, chloroplast, and nuclear DNA, but nuclear microsatellites are more useful genetic tools than those in plastids or mitochondria. Plastid and mitochondrial microsatellites have been identified in the model plant Marchantia polymorpha (liverwort), but no laboratory has published information on nuclear microsatellite loci. The aim of this study was to detect novel nuclear markers in the most commonly employed liverwort species, design PCR primers that would allow amplification, and characterize the subsequently generated loci. We detected 18 polymorphic nuclear loci in M. polymorpha, amplifiable by PCR across all chromosomes. Additionally, trans-specific amplification of the eighteen loci …

C. Compactum Acts As A Comprehensive Climate Archive And Ecological Foundation In The Labrador Sea, Sadie Heckman

CMC Senior Theses

Clathromorphum compactum, a species of crustose coralline algae (CCA), is incredibly valuable for the future of high latitude ocean health, both as a comprehensive archive of changing ocean conditions, and ecologically as a foundational species for promoting biodiversity. Previous work establishes C. compactum as an effective climate proxy, and its life history provides several advantages for this use. C. compactum grow in nongeniculate, generally radial formations on hard substrates, over a wide distribution in mid-to-high latitude oceans and at subtidal depth ranges. Indeterminate growth leads to extreme longevity in C. compactum (Halfar et al., 2008), and growth rates are relatively …

Embryonic Exposure To Sodium Perchlorate Disrupts Organ Development In Mice, Kyle Bouten

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Perchlorate is an endocrine disrupting compound (EDC) commonly used for its oxidative properties. Perchlorate has been detected in many industrialized countries in drinking water, soil, foods, and breast milk. Perchlorate competitively inhibits the uptake of iodide into the thyroid follicles via the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS), thus reducing thyroid hormone synthesis. Perchlorate has many conflicting results in the toxicological effects that perchlorate has on organ development in model fishes, but much less work has been done on mammals. In the present study, I examined the morphological effects of environmentally relevant concentrations (0, 10, and 100ppm) of sodium perchlorate on the thyroid, …

Sun Damages And Preventative Measures For Keratinocyte Carcinomas, Alex Kandolin

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

UV rays from the sun cause damage to our genomic DNA and in turn have the ability to cause cancer. Protection methods such as sunscreen have been used for many years, however, the introduction of polyphenols and topical creams have brought new hope to skin protection. Polyphenols are a new method using an internal approach that directly targets the damaged DNA using different mechanisms through food. When used in addition to sunscreen, the chances of skin cancer are greatly reduced. Additionally, but using topical cream such as 5-fluorouracil can be an approach to already existing lesions caused from UV radiation. …

Regulation Of Inflammatory Signaling By The Gut Microbiome, Caden Johnson

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

The human gut contains trillions of bacteria that play a key role in gastric homeostasis. Commensal bacteria play a critical role in the formation of the gastrointestinal barrier that prevents invasion of other pathogenic bacteria and also serves as a secondary metabolism system that aids in the synthesis of dietary fibers into many essential nutrients such as vitamins, sugars, and especially short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the anaerobic conditions in the large intestine. These SCFAs assist in regulating immune tolerance to commensal bacteria of the gut and promote an anti-inflammatory state important to lowering the incidence of inflammatory disorders …

Treatment-Related Adverse Effects In African Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review, Gabriel T. Fagbenro

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Treatment associated with cancer comes with serious adverse effects which affect patients’ physiological functioning, worsen financial toxicity, reduce quality of life, and increased risk of treatment discontinuation. There is dearth of evidence on prevalence and pattern of side effects among African patients receiving cancer-directed therapies. Primary research studies reporting side effects of non-surgical interventions among patients in African countries were selected for review. The most prevalent side effects included nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite (chemotherapy); radiation dermatitis and mucositis (radiation therapy); anaemia, neutropenia/febrile neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia (chemoradiation), and cardiotoxicity (immunotherapy). Oncologists need to pre-empt and provide necessary prophylactic and …

Leveraging High Resolution Classifications And Random Forests For Hindcasting Decades Of Mesic Ecosystem Dynamics In The Landsat Time Series, N. E. Kolarik, N. Shrestha, T. Caughlin, J. S. Brandt

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mesic ecosystems are fundamental to conservation efforts in semi-arid systems, but are threatened by climate change and development. Newer earth observation datasets, including Sentinel-1 and −2, provide opportunities to monitor mesic ecosystems at meaningful spatial scales, but are insufficient for measuring decadal-scale changes. Conversely, the Landsat time series has decades of data, but images are spatially coarse relative to many of the mesic ecosystem areas that sustain dryland systems, resulting in classifications with mixed pixels inadequate for effective monitoring. We developed a workflow that uses 10-m classifications produced from fusion of the Sentinel-1 and −2 time series (2017–2020) to estimate …

Low Spatial Habitat Overlap Of Herbivores In The High Arctic Tundra, Virve Ravolainen, Ingrid M. G. Paulsen, Isabell Eischeid, Jennifer Sorensen Forbey, Eva Fuglei, Tomáš Hájek, Brage B. Hansen, Leif Egil Loe, Petr Macek, Jesper Madsen, Eeva M. Soininen, James D. M. Speed, Audun Stien, Hans Tømmervik, Åshild Ønvik Pedersen

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Herbivores play a crucial role in shaping tundra ecosystems through their effects on vegetation, nutrient cycling, and soil abiotic factors. Understanding their habitat use, co-occurrence, and overlap is therefore essential for informing ecosystem-based management and conservation. In the High Arctic, only a marginal proportion of the land area is vegetated, and climate change is impacting herbivore population sizes and their habitats. In this study, we assessed the spatial habitat overlap of a vertebrate herbivore community based on: 1) regional predictive summer habitat suitability models for the resident Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus), resident Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus …

Reciprocal Inhibition And Competitive Hierarchy Cause Negative Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Relationships, Rafael D'Andrea, Gabriel Khattar, Thomas Koffel, Veronica F. Frans, Leonora S. Bittleston, Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) captivates ecologists, but the factors responsible for the direction of this relationship remain unclear. While higher ecosystem functioning at higher biodiversity levels (‘positive BEF’) is not universal in nature, negative BEF relationships seem puzzlingly rare. Here, we develop a dynamical consumer-resource model inspired by microbial decomposer communities in pitcher plant leaves to investigate BEF. We manipulate microbial diversity via controlled colonization and measure their function as total ammonia production. We test how niche partitioning among bacteria and other ecological processes influence BEF in the leaves. We find that a negative BEF can …

What Are The Best Treatment Options For Infantile Cataracts?, Breindy Hecht

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Congenital and infantile cataracts are characterized by opacity of the ocular lens, causing decreased visual acuity and inducing amblyopia. Treatment of pediatric patients is complicated because the eye is still growing during childhood, and the mind-eye connection is developing during this time. Anything that obstructs visual input from the eye to the brain raises risks of permanent visual deficit. Treatment includes immediate cataract extraction; this is sometimes followed by intraocular implantation of an artificial lens. After surgery, treatment continues in the form of occlusive patching therapy, corrective spectacles, or cycloplegic eye drops. Oftentimes, several methods are used simultaneously for maximal …

Lead Exposure: Neurological Implications, Transmission In Utero, And Treatment, Chana Birnbaum

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Blood lead levels are routinely measured in pediatric clinics due to the well-documented detrimental effects of lead exposure on neurodevelopment and consequently cognition. Reading difficulties, impaired detailed movement, and depressed reaction time are three areas, among others, implicated in lead toxicity (Needleman, 1990). Furthermore, lead toxicity can be of particular concern in pregnant women, as placental transmission is viable (Gundacker & Hengstschläger, 2012, as cited in Sun et al., 2018). Future research investigating the transmission of lead from mother to fetus may provide insight into the timeline of in utero lead transmission and consequently the ability to direct anti-toxicity treatment …

Is Ozempic A Safe Way To Lose Weight?, Elizer Terebelo

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Obesity, as classified by the AHA, is a chronic disorder affecting many people worldwide. Providing treatments for obesity is a multi-million-dollar industry. There are many different types of treatments offered for obesity, ranging from pills to surgeries. Ozempic has been touted as an FDA-approved supplement that can help someone lose weight. These GLP-1 agonists are used to treat type-2 diabetes and have been shown to help patients lose weight. Type-2 diabetes is a chronic illness that can lead to cardiovascular disease, stroke, kidney failure, serious eye disease, neuropathy, and many other diseases. For this reason, most risks that Ozempic would …

Muscle Degradation Due To Aging And The Role Of Exercise In Aging Adults, Chava Rosenbaum

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Skeletal muscle contraction is essential for the human body’s movement, balance, and formation. As aging sets in, the skeletal muscular system begins to decay, leading to a decline in muscle strength, reducing strength, and increasing the risk of falling. Studies have found changes in hormone levels and muscle communication are key factors contributing to muscle movement and mass decline. Consequently, different exercise methods have been explored to slow down the rapidly deteriorating muscles and help maintain a healthy, strong muscular system. This paper delves into specific exercise routines proven through studies to be beneficial for the body. While some research …

Full Issue: Volume 18, Number 1, Fall 2024

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Complete .pdf file of Volume 18, Number 1 of The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences. Published Fall 2024.

Can Immunotherapy Treat Food Allergies?, Baila Klahr

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Food allergies among children are highly prevalent. The elimination diet and fear of allergic reactions cause anxiety in many children and their parents. Immunotherapy stimulates the production of Treg cells which inhibit IgE-mediated allergic reactions. This can successfully desensitize children to their allergens. Subcutaneous immunotherapy can be used for environmental allergens while sublingual or oral immunotherapy should be used for food allergies. There are some risks associated with oral immunotherapy and research is ongoing to study the safety and efficacy of oral immunotherapy.

Relationships Between Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon Pyrrhonota) And Feather Coloration, Morphological Characteristics, And Colony Size, Sonja M. Brandt

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Environmental stressors such as drought and roadways can strongly affect breeding birds. Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon Pyrrhonota) are aerial insectivores that experience mortality from car collisions, because they often nest and hunt under bridges and road culverts. Individual traits that may convey social information, such as body condition, or feather coloration, might be associated with better coping around cars and other environmental stressors. Few studies have investigated relationships between coloration and other environmental stressors, such as water loss due to drought near the colony and foraging areas. Colony size can be heavily affected by various environmental factors such as water level …

Forage Preference In Two Geographically Co-Occurring Fungus Gardening Ants (Formicidae): A Novel Dietary Dna Approach, Matthew Richards-Perhatch V

Biology Theses

Existing biological techniques, when applied in novel ways or to novel systems, can be used to overcome long-standing obstacles. Limitations resulting from traditional methods of forage material identification make resource partitioning impractical to study in non-leafcutting fungus gardening ants. This thesis explores the use of dietary DNA (dDNA) metabarcoding as a method of forage material identification in ant fungus gardens. We hypothesize that dDNA analysis will be sufficient to identify forage material in the gardens of co-occurring species Trachymyrmex septentrionalis and Mycetomoellerius turrifex. Furthermore, we hypothesize that T. septentrionalis and M. turrifex will forage on significantly different …

Can Multi-Species Plantings Alleviate Abiotic Stressors To Enhance Bald Cypress Restoration?, Victoria S. Ellis, Taylor M. Sloey

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Restoration researchers and practitioners alike advocate for novel restoration approaches, informed by ecological theories and principles, to enhance the likelihood of meeting restoration goals. Forested wetland restoration has historically focused on creating abiotic conditions that support the tolerance thresholds of desired species, but the stress gradient hypothesis provides guidance for potential new strategies that use biotic interactions to ameliorate stressful abiotic conditions. In this study, we tested whether multi-species planting approaches can be used to enhance the survival and growth of a target restoration tree species, Bald cypress, along multiple abiotic gradients. We conducted a fully factorial controlled greenhouse experiment …

Arousal Patterns, Fungal Loads, And Wing Damage In A Surviving Population Of Little Brown Bats (Myotis Lucifugus), Brooke A. Daly

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) at Tippy Dam in Michigan have shown resilience to white-nose syndrome (WNS), which is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans. This study evaluated the impact of environment (temperature and moisture), pathogen virulence, and host susceptibility on survival. Host response was assessed using temperature-sensitive radio transmitters (n = 37) and ultraviolet photography (n = 57), while fungal load (n = 56) was evaluated through quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). High autumn temperatures (>10°C) favored growth of the fungus, while mid-hibernation temperature (3.2°C) was unfavorable. The mean torpor bout length (TBL) …

Kif3a Tail Domain Phosphorylation Is Not Required For Ciliogenesis In Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts, Ayoola Fasawe, Jessica M. Adams, Martin Engelke

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Primary cilia are essential signaling organelles that protrude from most cells in the body. Heterodimeric kinesin-2 (KIF3A/KIF3B/KAP3) powers several intracellular transport processes, including intraflagellar transport (IFT), essential for ciliogenesis. A long-standing question is how a motor protein is differentially regulated for specific cargos. Since phosphorylation of the KIF3A tail domain was suggested to regulate the activity of kinesin-2 for ciliogenesis, similarly as for the cytosolic cargo N-Cadherin, we set out to map the phosphosites involved in this regulation. Using well-characterized Kif3a−/−; Kif3b−/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we performed ciliogenesis rescue assays with a library of phosphomimetic mutants comprising all …

Probing Ligands To Reaction Centers To Limit The Photocycle In Photosynthetic Bacterium Rubrivivax Gelatinosus, Mariann Kis, James L. Smart, Péter Maróti

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Light-induced electron flow between reaction center and cytochrome bc1 complexes is mediated by quinones and electron donors in purple photosynthetic bacteria. Upon high-intensity excitation, the contribution of the cytochrome bc1 complex is limited kinetically and the electron supply should be provided by the pool of reduced electron donors. The kinetic limitation of electron shuttle between reaction center and cytochrome bc1 complex and its consequences on the photocycle were studied by tracking the redox changes of the primary electron donor (BChl dimer) via absorption change and the opening of the closed reaction center via relaxation of the bacteriochlorophyll fluorescence in intact …

Effects Of Neonatal Estradiol Treatment On Regulating Sexual Differentiation Of Daily Rhythms Underlying Diet-Induced Obesity In Female Mice, Samuel Nwadialo

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Sex differences of the brain and behavior often require the combination of organizational and activational effects of sex hormones. The activational effects of estrogens in adult female mice protect daily eating and activity rhythms from disruption by high-fat diet feeding and inhibit diet-induced obesity. However, male mice have disrupted eating rhythms when fed high-fat diet and this causes obesity. Treatment of adult male mice with estradiol does not protect rhythms from disruption by high-fat diet, as it does in females. In this study, we sought to determine whether the organizational effects of estradiol masculinize the daily eating and activity rhythms …

Investigations Across Biology And Education: Exploring The Gut Microbiome Of Freshwater Mussels And Understanding Undergraduate Biology Student Motivation, Mary Foley

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

A PhD aims to make a unique contribution to the current body of knowledge while developing as an independent researcher and critical thinker. This dissertation covers a wide range of topics, from microbiome analysis to biology education. Although there is no broad overarching research theme, all the chapters are connected by the process of scientific inquiry and by their contribution to the completion of a PhD.

Chapter One serves as a comprehensive literature review, delving into the standard methods of measuring the health of at-risk species. It describes direct measures of health (e.g., birth and death rates) crucial for predicting …

Estrogen Signaling Regulates The Sex Difference In Resynchronization To Abrupt Shifts Of The Light-Dark Cycle In A Mouse Model Of Jet Lag, Maria Venegas

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The circadian system coordinates 24-hour cycles of internal biological processes with the environmental light-dark cycle. Abrupt shifts in the timing of the light-dark cycle misalign internal circadian clocks with the environment and cause jet lag until resynchronization occurs. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying sex differences in jet lag in mice. Female mice resynchronized faster than male mice to 6-hour advances and delays of the light-dark cycle, which mimicked eastward and westward travel, respectively. Circulating estradiol was necessary for rapid resynchronization in female mice since ovariectomized females resynchronized slower than mice treated with estradiol. We …