Virology Commons^™

Characterizing The Microbiome Of Floral Nectar Of Asclepias Syriaca And Other Asclepias Species, Heather Natterer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In recent decades, Danaus plexippus (the monarch butterfly) has experienced a drastic decrease in population size due to urbanization, climate change, and habitat loss. The primary habitat and food source of D. plexippus is plant species that are within the genus Asclepias (milkweed). The preservation and propagation of Asclepias spp. is necessary to combat D. plexippus’s population declines. A plant’s reproductive success is dependent upon its ability to attract pollinators, which is linked to the plant’s nectar qualities. We propose that, in turn, these nectar qualities may be influenced by the nectar microbiome. This study aims to better understand the …

The Roles Of The Actin Network And Co-Opted Host Factors In Tbsv Replication, Melissa Gabriela Molho Medina

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Positive-stranded (+) RNA viruses are the largest family of viruses that infect plants, causing important economic losses in different crops. Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV), a small positive-stranded RNA virus, has emerged as a model virus to study virus-host interactions. TBSV encodes for only five proteins, therefore, to infect the host cell TBSV co-opts selected host components and subverts specific molecular pathways.

Firstly, I performed a proteomic screening using Arabidopsis proteins. I found that TBSV viral replication proteins interact with 88 host proteins, including the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 2 (Ubc2), fructose 1,6 biphosphate aldolase (Fba1), and several members of the Hps70 …