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Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Immunology and Infectious Disease

Demography And Disease Of The Rare Shrub Buckleya Distichophylla (Santalaceae) In Northeastern Tennessee, William Seth Ratliff Dec 2015

Demography And Disease Of The Rare Shrub Buckleya Distichophylla (Santalaceae) In Northeastern Tennessee, William Seth Ratliff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Piratebush (Buckleya distichophylla (Nutt.) Torr.) is a rare, hemiparasitic shrub with the only extant populations in western North Carolina, northeastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. The preferred natural hosts of piratebush, Carolina and eastern hemlocks, have seen sharp declines over the last decade due to the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid. Virginia pine, another important host of piratebush, is also susceptible to disease, specifically Cronartium appalachianum, a rust fungus for which piratebush is the secondary host. This study described and analyzed current demographic parameters of three Tennessee piratebush populations. Additionally, spatial patterns of disease and demographic characters were analyzed. These …


Parasite Infection Mediates Trait Tradeoffs In Fundulus Heteroclitus, Sarah Dunn May 2015

Parasite Infection Mediates Trait Tradeoffs In Fundulus Heteroclitus, Sarah Dunn

Honors College Theses

To be successful, an animal must eat, grow, and reproduce. With limited resources, there are tradeoffs between these critical life history parameters but the direction of the tradeoffs is largely unknown in a changing environment. To determine whether environmental context affects life-history tradeoffs, I surveyed and quantified investment into reproduction, growth, and a proxy for immunity (parasitism), in the mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus, a common inhabitant of salt marshes in Georgia. Three salt marsh sites along coastal Georgia (Shellman Bluff, Skidaway Island, and Tybee Island) were selected using a proxy for anthropogenic disturbance (impervious surface), which also fell along a …


Ecological And Evolutionary Interactions Between Song Sparrows (Melospiza Melodia) And Their Bloodborne Parasites, Yanina Sarquis-Adamson Feb 2015

Ecological And Evolutionary Interactions Between Song Sparrows (Melospiza Melodia) And Their Bloodborne Parasites, Yanina Sarquis-Adamson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Local adaptation is the result of natural selection operating at a local scale, such that trade-offs in fitness across different environments result in individuals having higher fitness in their place of origin than when transported into a foreign environment. Populations may become locally adapted to features of their abiotic environment, or in the case of coevolutionary arms races between hosts and parasites, to other species comprising their biotic environment. If host populations are adapted to their local (sympatric) parasites, or conversely if parasites are adapted to their local hosts, then interactions with local parasite strains may influence the fitness consequences …


Evolution Of Bat-Trypanosome Associations And The Origins Of Chagas Disease, Christian Miguel Pinto Feb 2015

Evolution Of Bat-Trypanosome Associations And The Origins Of Chagas Disease, Christian Miguel Pinto

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Trypanosoma cruzi is a genetically diverse parasite that causes Chagas disease, one of the most important zoonoses in the Americas. This generalist parasite of mammals belongs to a clade mostly comprised of bat parasites, the T. cruzi clade. The origins (i.e., biogeographic history and evolution of hosts associations) of this parasite are far from being understood, and the main areas that need further study are: species limits within T. cruzi sensu lato, further studies on the diversity of T. cruzi clade members and their hosts, and research on adaptations of the hosts to trypanosome infections. In this dissertation I explore …


Impacts Of Agrochemical Pollution On Aquatic Communities And Human Disease, Neal T. Halstead Jan 2015

Impacts Of Agrochemical Pollution On Aquatic Communities And Human Disease, Neal T. Halstead

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global human population is expected to exceed 9 billion individuals by 2050, putting greater strain on the natural resources needed to sustain such a population. To feed this many people, some expect agricultural production will have to double and agrochemical use will have to increase anywhere from two- to five-fold relative to the turn of the century. Although industrial agriculture has provided many benefits to society, it has caused declines in biodiversity, both directly (e.g., through conversion of habitat) and indirectly (e.g., through contamination of adjacent natural habitats). Agricultural activity has also been linked to increased prevalence and intensity …