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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Evolution
Phylogeography, Fungal Host Specificity, And Fitness In The Corallorhiza Maculata Species Complex, Hana Thixton-Nolan
Phylogeography, Fungal Host Specificity, And Fitness In The Corallorhiza Maculata Species Complex, Hana Thixton-Nolan
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Mycoheterotrophic plants exploit fungi for most or all nutritional needs, providing a compelling system to address the evolutionary consequences of genome reduction, population-level variation, and germination requirements. I am using the widespread Corallorhiza maculata species complex to address questions of genomic variation, fungal host specificity, morphological variation, and germination requirements across the broad geographic range from Mexico to northern North America. This complex contains C. bulbosa, C. macrantha, and C. mertensiana, the latter with three varieties (maculata, occidentalis, and mexicana). These taxa vary in flowering time, floral morphology, and fungal associations. However, the degree …
Genetics Of Mycangial Development And Host Colonization Within The Ambrosia Symbiosis, Mckeon James Laws
Genetics Of Mycangial Development And Host Colonization Within The Ambrosia Symbiosis, Mckeon James Laws
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Ambrosia beetles, a polyphyletic group of weevils, utilize pouch-like structures at various locations on the body to transport for their sole food source, their fungal partner. Ambrosia fungi are known to originate from multiple unrelated fungal lineages with no consensus of traits required to become a fungal cultivar. While the biology and ecology of both partners is in many cases well understood, the genetic underpinnings of this fascinating mutualism remain a mystery. The aim of this dissertation is to add to the understanding of the ambrosia symbiosis by providing insights into its molecular and genetic underpinnings through RNA sequencing data, …
Genomic Differences And Parentage In West Virginia's Reintroduced Elk (Cervus Canadensis), Adam A.V. Cook
Genomic Differences And Parentage In West Virginia's Reintroduced Elk (Cervus Canadensis), Adam A.V. Cook
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Elk (Cervus canadensis) reintroductions have been common in the 20th and 21st centuries, yet 40% have failed to establish self-sustaining elk populations due to a lack of post-reintroduction demographic monitoring. Elk were reintroduced to West Virginia in 2016 following more than a century of absence after the species was extirpated in 1875. Elk were translocated to West Virginia from Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL) in eastern Kentucky and from Arizona. The two groups of elk differ in their subspecies, physiology, reintroduction history, connectivity, and habitat. Reintroductions create genetic risks such as the founder effect and …
Molecular Characterization Of Fungus-Arthropod Associations, Angie M. Martin
Molecular Characterization Of Fungus-Arthropod Associations, Angie M. Martin
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Arthropods, or phylum Arthropoda, are the largest group of animals, accounting for over three quarters of all animal records on NCBI Taxonomy. And yet, only 40% of all deposited sequences on NCBI Nucleotide come from arthropods. Clearly, arthropods are an understudied group of animals: they are small, often drab, and lead lives very alien to our own. Arthropods have chitinous exoskeletons, segmented bodies, and jointed appendages, and include crabs, barnacles, insects, spiders, and millipedes. Since the era of DNA based studies took off in the 1980s, DNA and other small molecules have been integral to our understanding of the Earth …
A Balancing Act: Microrna Mediated Insect-Bacterial Homeostasis And The Tsetse Fly, Mason Hubbard Lee
A Balancing Act: Microrna Mediated Insect-Bacterial Homeostasis And The Tsetse Fly, Mason Hubbard Lee
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Microbial symbioses are ubiquitous across all kingdoms of life with broad and diverse impacts on the evolution of species. The sum of all microbes living in, on, or otherwise in close association with a host form the microbiota. In some cases, the development of a stable microbial association seems to have been necessary for the specialization of diet, as can be observed in numerous insect species, especially wood-eating, sap-feeding, and blood-feeding organisms. For the medically and economically tsetse fly (family Glossinidae), the mutualistic bacteria Wigglesworthia glossinidia is required for proper reproduction and supplementation of nutrients that the fly does not …
Investigation Of L-Serine Synthesis And Transport As Stabilizing Feedback Mechanisms Within The Tsetse-Wigglesworthia Symbiosis, Ryan Phillips
Investigation Of L-Serine Synthesis And Transport As Stabilizing Feedback Mechanisms Within The Tsetse-Wigglesworthia Symbiosis, Ryan Phillips
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Tsetse flies (Glossina morsitans), which are the obligate vectors of Old-World trypanosomes (Trypanosoma spp.) that cause African trypanosomiasis, have a bacteriome that houses the intracellular endosymbiont Wigglesworthia glossinidia. The ancient coevolution of these species has led to the integration of Wigglesworthia metabolism into tsetse physiology and a subsequent reliance on nutrient exchange for maintaining the fitness of both partners. The establishment of this obligate mutualism has facilitated the emergence of feedback mechanisms that stabilize the symbiosis, such as that which involves the exchange of L-serine and B vitamins. The Gammaproteobacteria Wigglesworthia supplement B vitamins lacking …
Getting To The Root Cause: The Genetic Underpinnings Of Root System Architecture And Rhizodeposition In Sorghum, Farren Smith
Getting To The Root Cause: The Genetic Underpinnings Of Root System Architecture And Rhizodeposition In Sorghum, Farren Smith
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Plants are some of the most diverse organisms on earth, consisting of more than 350,000 different species. To understand the underlying processes that contributed to plant diversification, it is fundamental to identify the genetic and genomic components that facilitated various adaptations over evolutionary history. Most studies to date have focused on the underlying controls of above-ground traits such as grain and vegetation; however, little is known about the “hidden half” of plants. Root systems comprise half of the total plant structure and provide vital functions such as anchorage, resource acquisition, and storage of energy reserves. The execution of these key …
Initial And Advanced Stages Of Microbiota Establishment Within The Tsetse Fly, Miguel Eduardo Medina Munoz
Initial And Advanced Stages Of Microbiota Establishment Within The Tsetse Fly, Miguel Eduardo Medina Munoz
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Symbiosis is a long-term physical association between two or more species, although little is known regarding its evolutionary origins, particularly at the genetic level. Tsetse flies are the vector of African trypanosomes, causative agents of Human and Animal African Trypanosomiases. Tsetse provide an ideal model for studying initial and advanced stages of symbiosis. Tsetse have a simple digestive tract microbiota primarily consisting of two bacteria; the ancient mutualist Wigglesworthia glossinidia and the recently acquired Sodalis glossinidius. This work presents a chronological study in evolutionary terms of the history of a microbial-insect association. First, I present concepts on symbiosis and …
The Effects Of Internal Physiology On Polyphenic Horn Development In The Dung Beetle Onthophagus Taurus, Naomi Garrett Williamson
The Effects Of Internal Physiology On Polyphenic Horn Development In The Dung Beetle Onthophagus Taurus, Naomi Garrett Williamson
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
An organism’s phenotype can be affected in development by alterations to gene expression based on environmental inputs. Nutrition is one such environmental input and the central regulator of development of large horn or small horn phenotypes in the dung beetle species, Onthophagus taurus. However, little is known about the nature of chemical compounds that are critical to this plastic horn development. To better understand these compounds, we are utilizing an untargeted metabolomic approach as well as a targeted gene approach. Through the metabolomic approach, it was uncovered that environmental conditions tend to have a greater impact on metabolomic composition …
Evolutionary Genomics Of Dynamic Sex Chromosomes In The Salicaceae, Ran Zhou
Evolutionary Genomics Of Dynamic Sex Chromosomes In The Salicaceae, Ran Zhou
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Identifying the sex-determination region (SDR) and other genomic features of sex chromosomes are of great importance in the studies of the evolution of sex. However, the process of accurately identifying the size and location of the SDR is often difficult, even when a genomic sequence is available. This usually is hindered by large repetitive elements and a lack of recombination in the SDR. In this thesis, I assemble sex chromosomes with whole genomic sequencing data, identify SDRs and explore their genomic features in two sister species from the Salicaceae family. I also develop an interpretation of the lability of the …
Estimating Evolutionary Volatility In A Maximum-Likelihood Framework, Samuel Warren Tybout
Estimating Evolutionary Volatility In A Maximum-Likelihood Framework, Samuel Warren Tybout
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Evolutionary volatility is a trait that encompasses a clade’s combined capacity for origination and extinction. High volatility increases extinction risk, and declining global extinction rates are thought to be linked to declining volatility. Despite volatility’s scientific importance, there is no standardized way of measuring it. This study provides a new method, derived from a stochastic birth-death model, of estimating evolutionary volatility from fossil data. Simulations indicate that the method produces accurate and precise estimates for large fossil datasets. Analysis of fossil data for five bivalve families (Lucinidae, Mytilidae, Pectinidae, Pholadomyidae, and Veneridae) indicates that diversity projections made from the estimates …
The Host Gatekeeper: Using The Flagellar Pathway To Understand Symbiont Host Adaptation, Adam R. Pollio
The Host Gatekeeper: Using The Flagellar Pathway To Understand Symbiont Host Adaptation, Adam R. Pollio
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
The acquisition of microbial partners is a strategy used by a diverse group of arthropods to overcome ecological barriers that might normally make certain niches uninhabitable. The unique phylogenetic opportunities attainable from the natural experiment of the Sodalis-allied clade allow for better understanding of how molecular structures evolve through time. Here, we focus on the evolution of the flagellar synthesis pathway, due to its complexity and ability to diverge in response to ecological pressures. We used this molecular pathway and natural experiment to show that normal evolutionary outcomes associated with symbiosis (i.e., genome reduction) do not explain the predicted conservation …
Trees, Fungi, Insects: How Host Plant Genetics Builds A Community, Sandra Jeanne Simon
Trees, Fungi, Insects: How Host Plant Genetics Builds A Community, Sandra Jeanne Simon
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Organisms, such as fungi and insects, can cause millions of acres of agricultural and forest damage, while others provide billions of dollars in ecological services such as education, aesthetic enjoyment, pollination, and gardening. Plant breeding and biotechnology can potentially help establish a balance between the proliferation of detrimental pests and attraction of beneficial insects. Variation in plant physiological and morphological characteristics are extremely important in the ability of host tissues to support many different types of organisms. When that variation is genetically heritable in a plant population, shifts in the underlying genes can have predictable consequences in structuring entire ecosystems. …
Developmental Mechanisms For The Diversification Of Polyphenic Morphs In The Head Horn Of Onthophagine Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae Onthophagus Taurus): Plasticity Through Nutrition, Logan Paul Zeigler
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
Developmental plasticity is the phenotypic variation between organisms that is caused by environmental interactions affecting the developmental systems of organisms. The research focused primarily on nutrition-responsive developmental plasticity. In this research we used the nutritionally determined head horn development of Onthophagus taurus to better understand the developmental mechanisms and genetic underpinnings of nutrition-responsive trait development. We focused specifically on altering the availability of specific nutrition-related primary metabolites, cholesterol and palmitic acid, identified in the activity of The Hedgehog pathway, a critical pathway in head horn development. By altering diet composition using cholesterol, reducing transcript expression of an acyltransferase gene, rasp …