Systems and Integrative Physiology Commons^™

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Role Of Sex In Load Carriage, Rachel E. Perez, Dustin R. Slivka, Brent C. Ruby

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Axially loaded weight may impose a metabolic demand equivalent to that of fat mass (FM) during load carriage. Males (M) typically have a lower body fat percentage than females (F), resulting in metabolic demand differences during load carriage that may be mitigated by accounting for FM in pack loads. PURPOSE: To determine whether normalizing pack load to FM equalizes metabolic cost across sexes during load carriage. METHODS: Twenty-eight participants (14M, 23 ± 5 y, 1.81 ± 0.07 m, 78.7 ± 10.0 kg, 12.7 ± 5.4% body fat, VO₂peak 4.18 ± 0.54 L·min^-1; 14F, 22 ± 4 …

Metabolic Transitions In Embryos Of Artemia Franciscana: Regulation And Consequences For Oxidative Stress, Daniel Anthony Arabie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Embryos of Artemia franciscana survive harsh conditions in diapause and anoxia-induced quiescence for years by undergoing deep metabolic transitions. I investigated the relationship between phosphorylation of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and carbon flux to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle during metabolic depression. The difference in catalytic activity of the PDH complex (PDC) in maximally phosphorylated and dephosphorylated samples was 16.5-fold. Western blot analysis confirmed the changes in phosphorylation of PDH. Analysis of PDH expression in diapause and post-diapause embryos via phospho-PDH showed no significant differences. Investigation of post-diapause embryos under anoxia showed that phosphorylation of PDH decreased and activated the enzyme. …

An Updated Outline For Clearing And Staining Of Preserved Specimens, Sadie E. Smith

Honors Theses and Capstones

This protocol outlines a enhanced clearing and staining procedure for persevered specimens, focusing on the visualization of cartilage and bone in small taxa. With origins from O. Shultze's diaphonization methodology in 1897, the process of clearing and staining improves the clarity and contrast of intricate tissues. It is essential for studies in developmental biology, histology and anatomy. This protocol covers the key steps of the process while detailing the materials, solutions and estimated timeline for each step pertaining to specific taxa. The aim of the protocol is to standardize and provide guidance for procedures in the Biological Sciences department at …

Effects Of Intertidal Position On The Response To Oxygen And Desiccation Stress In The Common Acorn Barnacle, Balanus Glandula, Megan M. Dotterweich

Master's Theses

Sessile invertebrates in the rocky intertidal experience intermittent periods of air exposure due to tidal flux, presenting risks of temperature extremes, hypoxia, nutrient limitation, and most dangerously, desiccation. Microscale variation in severity and frequency of these risks is widely dependent on vertical position within the intertidal zone. Common acorn barnacles (Balanus glandula) have a wide vertical distribution in the intertidal, creating large differences in microhabitat between the highest and lowest individuals in the population. This study set out to explore whether tidal position dependent differences exist in the response to oxygen and desiccation stress in B. glandula. …

Artificial Light At Night Disrupts Male Dominance Relationships And Reproductive Success In A Model Fish Species, Lauren E. Closs, Muhammad Rahmad Rayan, Amin Sayyari, Ian Mayer, Finn-Arne Weltzien, Dianne M. Baker, Romain Fontaine

Biological Sciences Research

Environmental light is perceived and anticipated by organisms to synchronize their biological cycles. Therefore, artificial light at night (ALAN) disrupts both diurnal and seasonal biological rhythms. Reproduction is a complex physiological process involving integration of environmental signals by the brain, and release of endocrine signals by the pituitary that regulate gametogenesis and spawning. In addition, males from many species form a dominance hierarchy that, through a combination of aggressive and protective behavior, influences their reproductive success. In this study, we investigated the effect of ALAN and continuous daylight on the behavior and fitness of male fish within a dominance hierarchy …

A Brain-Infecting Parasite Impacts Host Metabolism Both During Exposure And After Infection Is Established, Lauren E. Nadler, Erik Bengston, Erika J. Eliason, Cameron Hassibi, Siri H. Helland-Riise, Ida B. Johansen, Garfield T. Kwan, Martin Tresguerres, Andrew V. Turner, Kelly L. Weinersmith, Øyvind Øverli, Ryan F. Hechinger

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Datasets

1. Metabolic costs associated with parasites should not be limited to established infections. Even during initial exposure to questing and attacking parasites, hosts can enact behavioural and physiological responses that could also incur metabolic costs. However, few studies have measured these costs directly. Hence, little is known about metabolic costs arising from parasite exposure.
2. Further, no one has yet measured whether and how previous infection history modulates metabolic responses to parasite exposure.
3. Here, using the California killifish (Fundulus parvipinnis) and its brain-infecting parasite (Euhaplorchis californiensis), we quantified how killifish metabolism, behaviour, and osmoregulatory phenotype changed upon acute …

Metabolic And Cardiovascular Marker Alterations During Critical Training In Wildland Firefighters, Shae Gurney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Introduction: Wildland firefighters (WLFFs) are confronted with numerous physical and mental stressors. Pre-fire season includes an intense 2-week critical training (CT) period; a preparatory phase of multiple activities that can result in injury, illness, and rhabdomyolysis. The purpose of this study was to identify physiologic changes in metabolic, inflammatory, and oxidative stress biomarkers during 2 weeks of CT in WLFFs.

Methods: Eighteen male (29.4 ± 1.1 yr, 182.1 ± 1.6 cm) and three female (26.7  2.6 yr, 169.5  4.2 cm) participants were recruited from a Type I interagency hotshot crew and monitored over their 2-week CT. Fitness was …

Thermoregulatory Dysfunction In Multiple Sclerosis, Dustin R. Allen

Applied Physiology and Wellness Theses and Dissertations

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive neurological disease of the central nervous system (CNS) affecting an estimated 2.3 million people worldwide. Marked by lesions in the brain and spinal cord, MS leads to conduction abnormalities in the CNS. Evidence suggests ~60% of individuals with MS experience temporary worsening of their symptoms upon exposure to heat. Adding complexity, observational evidence suggests these individuals exhibit reduced thermoregulatory responses in upon increases in core temperature. Consequently, these individuals face a vicious cycle of heat sensitivity and thermoregulatory dysfunction, substantially impacting their quality of life. With this in mind, our lab is dedicated to …

The Mechanism Of Biotremor Production In The Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo Calyptratus), Samuel Tegge

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Vibratory communication has evolved in numerous animal groups, including insects, spiders, fishes, mammals, and was recently discovered in veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus). I examined the mechanism by which C. calyptratus produce these biotremors. Muscle activity data were gathered during simulated anti-predator responses via electromyography (EMG) with simultaneous recordings of biotremor production using an accelerometer. I correlated EMG data with the accelerometer data to implicate the muscles responsible for the production of the biotremors. Mixed-effect linear regression models described the mechanism, and a model selection framework determined which model fit the data best. I then used an analysis of variance to …

Cold Tolerance, Diapause And Winter Survival Of The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha Halys), Naomi Sibayan

All Master's Theses

The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, is native to eastern Asia and is an invasive pest in the United States. Limited research has been done regarding the factors influencing this species’ winter survival within invaded northern regions. Cold tolerance has been previously evaluated in the eastern United States, bot nut within western populations. Winter diapause. Along with any potential links between diapause and cold tolerance remain unstudied. I examined characteristics of cold tolerance, diapause and overwintering sites to evaluate the factors contributing to the winter survival and, ultimately, persistence of this pest within central Washington. This study measured seasonal …

Organizational Effects Of Defeminizing Toxicants: Lessons Learned From An Environmental Sentinel Organism, The Fathead Minnow., Jonathan Ali

Theses & Dissertations

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are chemicals that interfere with hormone function and are increasingly detected in aquatic environments, where they elicit adverse effects from exposed organisms. The toxicological effects of EDCs can be described as either activational (reversible) or organizational (irreversible), where the latter are associated with adverse outcomes in reproductive performance of adult fish. However, few studies have investigated the organizational impacts of anti-estrogenic or “defeminizing” EDCs, e.g. agrichemicals or pharmacological agents, in an environmentally-relevant or “sentinel” species. The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of early-life EDC-initiated changes in estrogenic gene expression on organizational effects …

Insights Into The Therapeutic Potential Of Salt Inducible Kinase 1: A Novel Mechanism Of Metabolic Control, Randi Fitzgibbon

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Salt inducible kinase 1 (SIK1) has been considered a stress-inducible kinase since it was first cloned in 1999. Continued efforts since this time have been dedicated to characterizing the structure and function of SIK1. Such research has laid the ground work for our understanding of SIK1 action and regulation in tissue and stimuli dependent manners. The fundamental findings of this dissertation continue in this tradition and include investigations of SIK1 regulatory mechanisms in skeletal muscle cells, the cellular and physiological effects of SIK1 loss of function in vitro and in vivo, and intracellular metabolic and mitochondrial regulation by this …

Mitochondria Mediate Cell Membrane Repair And Contribute To Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy., Maria C Vila, Sree Rayavarapu, Marshall W Hogarth, Jack H Van Der Meulen, Adam Horn, Aurelia Defour, Shin'ichi Takeda, Kristy J. Brown, Yetrib Hathout, Kanneboyina Nagaraju, Jyoti K. Jaiswal

Genomics and Precision Medicine Faculty Publications

Dystrophin deficiency is the genetic basis for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), but the cellular basis of progressive myofiber death in DMD is not fully understood. Using two dystrophin-deficient mdx mouse models, we find that the mitochondrial dysfunction is among the earliest cellular deficits of mdx muscles. Mitochondria in dystrophic myofibers also respond poorly to sarcolemmal injury. These mitochondrial deficits reduce the ability of dystrophic muscle cell membranes to repair and are associated with a compensatory increase in dysferlin-mediated membrane repair proteins. Dysferlin deficit in mdx mice further compromises myofiber cell membrane repair and enhances the muscle pathology at an asymptomatic …

Glucocorticoid Receptor (Nr3c1) Variants Associate With The Muscle Strength And Size Response To Resistance Training., Garrett I Ash, Matthew A Kostek, Harold Lee, Theodore J Angelopoulos, Priscilla M Clarkson, Paul M Gordon, Niall M Moyna, Paul S Visich, Robert F Zoeller, Thomas B Price, Joseph M. Devaney, Heather Gordish-Dressman, Paul D Thompson, Eric P. Hoffman, Linda S Pescatello

Genomics and Precision Medicine Faculty Publications

Glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) polymorphisms associate with obesity, muscle strength, and cortisol sensitivity. We examined associations among four NR3C1 polymorphisms and the muscle response to resistance training (RT). European-American adults (n = 602, 23.8±0.4yr) completed a 12 week unilateral arm RT program. Maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) assessed isometric strength (kg) and MRI assessed biceps size (cm2) pre- and post-resistance training. Subjects were genotyped for NR3C1 -2722G>A, -1887G>A, -1017T>C, and +363A>G. Men carrying the -2722G allele gained less relative MVC (17.3±1.2vs33.5±6.1%) (p = 0.010) than AA homozygotes; men with -1887GG gained greater relative MVC than A allele carriers …

Changes In Brain Water Content In The Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss) And In The Goldfish (Carassius Auratus) Due To High External Ammonia Exposure, Phillip Q.H. Pham-Ho

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In fishes, hyperammonemia may occur following feeding or exposure to abnormally high concentrations of environmental ammonia due to sewage effluents, agricultural run-off and in crowded aquaculture pens. Increased internal ammonia can result in hyperactivity, convulsions, coma and death. In mammals, it is also associated with potentially fatal brain edema, in which the accumulation of intracellular water results in swelling, increased intracranical pressure and herniation leading to death. Recently it was shown that rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and goldfish (Carassius auratus) experience brain swelling following exposure to high external ammonia (HEA). However, the mechanism of ammonia-induced brain …

Multi-Stress Proteomics: The Global Protein Response To Multiple Environmental Stressors In The Porcelain Crab Petrolisthes Cinctipes, Michael A. Garland

Master's Theses

Global climate change is increasing the number of hot days along the California coast as well as increasing the incidence of off-shore upwelling events that lower the pH of intertidal seawater; thus, intertidal organisms are experiencing an increase in more than one stress simultaneously. This study seeks to characterize the global protein response of the eurythermal porcelain crab Petrolisthes cinctipes to changes in thermal, pH, and tidal regime treatments, either combined or individually. The first experiment examined temperature stress alone and sought to determine the effect of chronic temperature acclimation on the acute heat shock response. We compared the proteomic …

Bioregulatory Systems Medicine: An Innovative Approach To Integrating The Science Of Molecular Networks, Inflammation, And Systems Biology With The Patient's Autoregulatory Capacity?, Alyssa W Goldman, Yvonne Burmeister, Konstantin Cesnulevicius, Martha Herbert, Mary Kane, David Lescheid, Timothy Mccaffrey, Myron Schultz, Bernd Seilheimer, Alta Smit, Georges St Laurent, Brian Berman

Medicine Faculty Publications

Bioregulatory systems medicine (BrSM) is a paradigm that aims to advance current medical practices. The basic scientific and clinical tenets of this approach embrace an interconnected picture of human health, supported largely by recent advances in systems biology and genomics, and focus on the implications of multi-scale interconnectivity for improving therapeutic approaches to disease. This article introduces the formal incorporation of these scientific and clinical elements into a cohesive theoretical model of the BrSM approach. The authors review this integrated body of knowledge and discuss how the emergent conceptual model offers the medical field a new avenue for extending the …

Tradeoffs Of Warm Adaptation In Aquatic Ectotherms: Live Fast, Die Young?, Eloy Martinez, Anthony Porreca, Robert Colombo, Michael Menze

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

In the face of a changing climate, questions regarding sub-lethal effects of elevated habitat temperature on the physiology of ectotherms remain unanswered. In particular, long-term responses of ectotherms to the warming trend in tropical regions are unknown, and understudied due to the difficulties in specimen and community traceability. In freshwater lakes employed as cooling reservoirs for power plants, increased physiological stress from high water temperature can potentially alter the community structure of fishes. We employ this highly tractable system to assess how thermal regimes can alter the physiology and ecology of aquatic species. We documented a significantly reduced lifespan, growth …

Understanding The Physiological Effects Of Suspended Material On Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss), Tyler J. Weinhardt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The effect of global warming on northern environments is becoming increasingly evident. Melting of underlying permafrost is associated with widespread impacts in these environments. The loss of permafrost results in a destabilizing of underlying sedimentary layers resulting in thermokarst slumping. When this occurs on a large scale (mega-slumping) soil material becomes mobilized and is carried into local streams and rivers. The purpose of this study is to examine the sub-lethal physiological effects that suspended material has on rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the context of the Peel River Plateau. Juvenile rainbow trout were exposed (following Environment Canada exposure …