Animals Commons^™

Invasion Of Microplastics Into The Reproductive Tissues Of Feral And Domestic Felines, Emma K. Quade

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Although plastics have many useful properties in modern society, once these materials are introduced into the environment, they can cause extensive damage. Following degradation into microplastics (MP), plastic particles less than 5 mm in size, these contaminants can make their way into a variety of different environments and organisms. There are many studies that have investigated the prevalence of MP in marine environments, but fewer studies have looked into terrestrial systems, and even less that have focused on contamination in companion animals. This study sought to investigate the invasion of MP into the reproductive tissues of felines, Felis catus, …

Field Journal: The Excluded Middle, Carrie E. Kouts

Masters Theses

What does it look like to engage with organisms and landscapes at the periphery of anthropocentric value structures? How does one break the internalized myth that the “built” environment is excluded from the natural world? When does a hyper-mobile and hyper-commodified society confront the exponential crisis of animal death? Within this series of journal entries, field notes, collection observations, weird prose, and sensory musings, one will find questions on the nature of being human and the complex narratives of care we encounter in a world shared with more-than-humans. Each handwritten vignette and photograph from daily life weaves a non-linear and …

The Role Of Floodplain Complexity In Wood Turtle Habitat Use, Laura S. Deming

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Wood turtles occupy cold, low-gradient riverine habitat throughout the northeastern United State and southeastern Canada. Stream alterations, such as dams, channel straightening, and floodplain development have diminished the natural hydrologic and sedimentation regimes that result in complex channel and floodplain geomorphology. Studies throughout the species’ range have quantified many aspects of their habitat, but none have quantified components of geomorphology of wood turtle sites. The goal of this study was to explore the role of stream channel and floodplain geomorphology in wood turtle habitat use, with specific objectives to (1) quantify components of stream channel and floodplain geomorphic complexity, (2) …

Ophidiomyces Ophidiicola And Texas Snakes: A Field To Bench Study Of Ophidiomycosis, Kenlynn L. Volz

Biology Theses

Ophidiomyces ophidiicola (Oo), the primary cause of Ophidiomycosis, is a fungal pathogen recently detected in Texas snakes. Prior to this study, there were major knowledge gaps regarding Oo growth, spread, and suitable environmental conditions. This study filled those gaps using a field to bench approach involving sampling snakes across Texas, in vitro fungal growth, and ecological niche modeling. 103 snakes were sampled across Texas in 2023 and 2024 and six cases of Oo infection were detected. Results of the growth experiment suggest that Oo prefers more stable temperatures and high humidity to a point and that there is a …

Microplastic Accumulation In The Marsh Periwinkle (Littoraria Irrorata), Sarah Keaton, Hannah Lukhard, Eli Windy, Manar Hasan

DePaul Discoveries

Contamination of oceans by microplastics (mm) currently poses a major threat to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Recent attention towards this issue has raised questions about the extent to which microplastics have accumulated in the environment, and has led to an increase in studies on the effects of microplastics in various organisms. However, levels of contamination in protected natural areas are still largely unexplored, yet can offer an important empirical perspective on the issue. In addition, little is known about the potential effects of microplastics on behavior in the field. This research was conducted within the protected ACE Basin National …

Two Structurally Defined Aβ Polymorphs Promote Different Pathological Changes In Susceptible Mice, Ruben Gomez-Gutierrez, Ujjayini Ghosh, Wai-Ming Yau, Nazaret Gamez, Katherine Do, Carlos Kramm, Hamid Shirani, Laura Vegas-Gomez, Jonathan Schulz, Ines Moreno-Gonzalez, Antonia Gutierrez, K Peter R Nilsson, Robert Tycko, Claudio Soto, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Misfolded Aβ is involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the role of its polymorphic variants or conformational strains in AD pathogenesis is not fully understood. Here, we study the seeding properties of two structurally defined synthetic misfolded Aβ strains (termed 2F and 3F) using in vitro and in vivo assays. We show that 2F and 3F strains differ in their biochemical properties, including resistance to proteolysis, binding to strain-specific dyes, and in vitro seeding. Injection of these strains into a transgenic mouse model produces different pathological features, namely different rates of aggregation, formation of different plaque types, …

Testis-Specific Serine Kinase 3 Is Required For Sperm Morphogenesis And Male Fertility, Kaori Nozawa, Thomas X Garcia, Katarzyna Kent, Mei Leng, Antrix Jain, Anna Malovannaya, Fei Yuan, Zhifeng Yu, Masahito Ikawa, Martin M Matzuk

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The importance of phosphorylation in sperm during spermatogenesis has not been pursued extensively. Testis-specific serine kinase 3 (Tssk3) is a conserved gene, but TSSK3 kinase functions and phosphorylation substrates of TSSK3 are not known.

OBJECTIVE: The goals of our studies were to understand the mechanism of action of TSSK3.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the localization of TSSK3 in sperm, used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate Tssk3 knockout (KO) mice in which nearly all of the Tssk3 open reading frame was deleted (ensuring it is a null mutation), analyzed the fertility of Tssk3 KO mice by breeding mice for 4 months, …

Long-Lasting Chews Elicit Positive Emotional States In Dogs During Short Periods Of Social Isolation, Hannah E Flint, Megan Atkinson, James Lush, Alysia B G Hunt, Tammie King

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Dogs may experience negative emotional states when isolated from human caregivers and conspecifics. This study aimed to evaluate how dogs interact with different enrichments during a short period of social isolation, as a first step towards identifying methods for improving their emotional wellbeing. Using a cross-over design, dogs (n = 20) at the Waltham Petcare Science Institute were exposed to four different food-based enrichments while left alone in a familiar room for 20 min: long-lasting chew (Chew), kibble in a treat-dispensing toy (Toy), and kibble dispensed through a smart treat-dispensing device with (Device + Voice) and without (Device) a …

Amphisbaenian Head Movement And Burrowing Forces In Damp Granular Media, Jacob Newell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Damp granular media is a difficult environment to study because it is both practically complex and it lacks equations which fully describe its behavior. In this study, an oscillatory lateral head movement and its effects while penetrating damp granular media were tested using a robophysical model. This experimental research was inspired by the burrowing behavior of the clade Amphisbaenia, a group of usually limbless squamates that employ a variety of different burrowing behaviors, but it can apply to a wide range of burrowers. This research could help with both human burrowing technologies and the further investigation of animal behaviors.

Wild Mice With Different Social Network Sizes Vary In Brain Gene Expression, Patricia C. Lopes, Barbara König

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Appropriate social interactions influence animal fitness by impacting several processes, such as mating, territory defense, and offspring care. Many studies shedding light on the neurobiological underpinnings of social behavior have focused on nonapeptides (vasopressin, oxytocin, and homologues) and on sexual or parent-offspring interactions. Furthermore, animals have been studied under artificial laboratory conditions, where the consequences of behavioral responses may not be as critical as when expressed under natural environments, therefore obscuring certain physiological responses. We used automated recording of social interactions of wild house mice outside of the breeding season to detect individuals at both tails of a distribution …

Cell Type Composition And Circuit Organization Of Clonally Related Excitatory Neurons In The Juvenile Mouse Neocortex, Cathryn R Cadwell, Federico Scala, Paul G Fahey, Dmitry Kobak, Shalaka Mulherkar, Fabian H Sinz, Stelios Papadopoulos, Zheng H Tan, Per Johnsson, Leonard Hartmanis, Shuang Li, Ronald J Cotton, Kimberley F Tolias, Rickard Sandberg, Philipp Berens, Xiaolong Jiang, Andreas Savas Tolias

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Clones of excitatory neurons derived from a common progenitor have been proposed to serve as elementary information processing modules in the neocortex. To characterize the cell types and circuit diagram of clonally related excitatory neurons, we performed multi-cell patch clamp recordings and Patch-seq on neurons derived from Nestin-positive progenitors labeled by tamoxifen induction at embryonic day 10.5. The resulting clones are derived from two radial glia on average, span cortical layers 2–6, and are composed of a random sampling of transcriptomic cell types. We find an interaction between shared lineage and connection type: related neurons are more likely to …

Immune-Endocrine Links To Gregariousness In Wild House Mice, Patricia C. Lopes, Esther H. D. Carlitz, Morgan Kindel, Barbara König

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Social interactions are critically important for survival and impact overall-health, but also impose costs on animals, such as exposure to contagious agents. The immune system can play a critical role in modulating social behavior when animals are sick, as has been demonstrated within the context of “sickness behaviors.” Can immune molecules affect or be affected by social interactions even when animals are not sick, therefore serving a role in mediating pathogen exposure? We tested whether markers of immune function in both the blood and the brain are associated with gregariousness, quantified as number of animals interacted with per day. To …

Neuroanatomy Of The Blackspotted Rockskipper, Entomacrodus Striatus, Pooja Dayal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Here I characterized the central neuroanatomy of the Blackspotted Rockskipper, Entomacrodus striatus, native to French Polynesia. The neuroanatomy of E. striatus has not been studied prior to this paper. I used several histology and antibody staining techniques to accomplish this, including Crystal Violet, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and Bielschowsky’s Silver Nitrate staining. This paper describes the most successful techniques used, identifies major structures in the species’ neuroanatomy, and also explains why studying E. striatus is important in the future of vertebrate research.

Assessing Morphology Of Iprgcs After Traumatic Brain Injury, Brian Foresi, Matt Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

ipRGCs are retinal ganglion cells that project to visual processing centers of the brain for nonimage forming visual functions. The relation of ipRGCs to tramatic brain injury (TBI) is emerging as data has been published describing ipRGC functional changes in TBI affected military veterans. Major symptomologies of concussions, a mild form of TBI, also overlap with the function governed by sites in the brain with major ipRGC projection percentages. Assesing if a morphological change is occuring in the ipRGCs after a TBI could support the idea of a pathological mechanism of the injury. This study could also indicate further relevance …

Investigating The Toxicity And Accumulation Of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid (2,4-D) And Glyphosate In Eisenia Fetida, Caitlin Lazurick, Nicole Lidzbarski, Rachel Owings, Jeff Brotherton, Edna Steele

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup^®, is the most widely used herbicide in the world. It is also used in combination with another effective herbicide, 2,4-D, in the formulation called Enlist Duo^®. The EPA approved the use of Enlist Duo^® on certain crops including those genetically modified to be resistant to both herbicides. The predicted significant increase in the use of these herbicides raised concerns from the general public because both compounds have been classified as possibly or probably carcinogenic. Since herbicides are applied directly to vegetation, the safety of organisms that come in contact …

Effects Of Acute Sepsis On Renal Structure And Sympathetic Innervation In Mice, Tuqa Alkhateeb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sympathetic nerves are important for renal physiology and sepsis pathophysiology. A recent study showed sprouting of sympathetic nerves in spleen of septic mice. This study was done to test if renal sprouting of sympathetic nerves also happens and to investigate renal morphology in septic mice. Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was used to induce sepsis and kidneys were removed for evaluation. Bowman’s space was diminished with cortical bubble cells present suggestive of acute renal pathology, however, renal function was unchanged. Acute sepsis did not affect either renal sympathetic innervation or non-neuronal cholinergic cells. Mouse kidneys had more epinephrine (EPI) than …

Exploring The Impact Of Olfaction On Short-Term And Long-Term Maternal Recognition In Peromyscus Californicus, Mariah F. Conley

Honors Projects

Previous studies have established a connection between social behavior and olfaction, in that as anosmia causes a decrease in perception of social cues, social behavior itself decreases. Studies investigating maternal behavior specifically have focused on foster care, in which the behaviors formed during parturition are conserved and displayed with unrelated pups. The combination of long-term retention of maternal behavior, maternal recognition, and olfaction has yet to be explored. In this study, I induced anosmia in Peromyscus californicus, a monogamous, biparental species, and analyzed their behavior with their own pups and with foreign pups in the days after birth, as well …

An Rnai Screen To Identify Components Of A Polyamine Transport System, Adam J. Foley

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Polyamines, specifically putrescine, spermidine, and spermine, are small cationic molecules found in all organisms. Cells can biosynthetically make these molecules, or alternatively, they can be transported from the extracellular environment. Malignant cells have been shown to require relatively high amounts of polyamines. There is a chemotherapeutic agent, DFMO, used to block the biosynthesis of polyamines. Many malignant cells can circumvent DFMO therapy by activating their transport system. A potential solution is to simultaneously block biosynthesis and transport of polyamines. However, little is known about the polyamine transport system in higher eukaryotes.

This thesis aims to add to the basic biological …

Optimization Of A Genomic Editing System Using Crispr/Cas9-Induced Site-Specific Gene Integration, Jillian L. Mccool Ms., Nick Hum, Gabriela G. Loots

STAR Program Research Presentations

The CRISPR-Cas system is an adaptive immune system found in bacteria which helps protect against the invasion of other microorganisms. This system induces double stranded breaks at precise genomic loci (1) in which repairs are initiated and insertions of a target are completed in the process. This mechanism can be used in eukaryotic cells in combination with sgRNAs (1) as a tool for genome editing. By using this CRISPR-Cas system, in addition to the “safe harbor locus,” ROSAβ26, the incorporation of a target gene into a site that is not susceptible to gene silencing effects can be achieved through few …

Assessment Of Daf-19 Related Behavioral Defects, Loraina A. Stinson

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The daf-19 gene encodes the only RFX transcription factors in C. elegans, producing at least four related protein isoforms, one of which, DAF-19C, is responsible for ciliogenesis. Previous work by Senti and Swoboda (2008) demonstrated that adult worms deficient in all four DAF-19 proteins have extremely aberrant dwelling and roaming behavior on bacterial food. Most intriguingly, the addition of cDNA encoding the DAF-19C isoform restores cilia formation, but does not fully restore wild-type dwelling and roaming behavior. We are suggesting that additional neuron functions are needed to properly execute behaviors and these neuron functions require the activity of other …

Comparative Analysis Of Anti-Bd Bacteria From Six Malagasy Frog Species Of Ranomafana National Park, Kelsey Savage

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

As Malagasy amphibians are facing an impending extinction crisis from the lethal skin fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), it has become imperative to proactively mitigate the threat. Bd sporangia develop in the skin of infected amphibians and cause the skin to thicken, leading to ionic imbalance and eventual heart failure. It has been shown that certain bacterial species are able to inhibit Bd growth on amphibians by producing antifungal metabolites. Community-based probiotics are one approach used to combat chytridomycosis by inoculating an environment with Bd-inhibitory bacteria so that many amphibian species are treated at once. With this method, it is important …

Proof-Of-Concept Of Environmental Dna Tools For Atlantic Sturgeon Management, Jameson Hinkle

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus, Mitchell) is an anadromous species that spawns in tidal freshwater rivers from Canada to Florida. Overfishing, river sedimentation and alteration of the river bottom have decreased Atlantic Sturgeon populations, and NOAA lists the species as endangered. Ecologists sometimes find it difficult to locate individuals of a species that is rare, endangered or invasive. The need for methods less invasive that can create more resolution of cryptic species presence is necessary. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a non-invasive means of detecting rare, endangered, or invasive species by isolating nuclear or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the …

The Effect Of Visual Wulst Lesions And Trigeminal Nerve Sectioning On The Discrimination Of Magnetic Inclination In The Homing Pigeon (Columba Livia), Merissa Acerbi

Honors Projects

The ability of homing pigeons to return to their loft from unknown places has fascinated scientists for centuries. It is well established that homing pigeons, like migratory birds, posses an innate magnetic inclination compass to determine direction by measuring the angle between the magnetic field vector and the Earth's surface. Recent work has indicated that the avian magnetic compass is light mediated and appears to mediate magnetic information to the brain. This occurs via a visual pathway with processing in the visual Wulst area of the forebrain. There is, however, also evidence from other avian species that magnetic direction may …

The Effects Of 17Α-Ethynylestradiol (Ee2) On Gonadal Development And Differentiation In The Estuarine Killifish, Fundulus Heteroclitus, Ibrahim Chehade

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Endocrine disrupting substances (EDSs) comprise a wide variety of chemicals that perturb normal endocrine function including developmental and reproductive processes in vertebrates. The synthetic estrogen 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE₂) is a commonly-used model EDS because of its environmental relevance and its effects on the reproductive endocrine system. Early life-stage exposure of fish to estrogenic EDSs causes effects such as intersex (ovotestes in males) and feminization. This study aims to confirm the period of gonadal differentiation in the estuarine killifish or mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) and to determine the sensitivity of gonadal development to EE₂. Artificially-regressed mummichog were spawned, and …

Multistate Mark-Recapture Analysis Reveals No Effect Of Blood Sampling On Survival And Recapture Of Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus Tyrannus), Lucas J. Redmond, Michael T. Murphy

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The experimentally supported and prevailing opinion is that blood sampling has few to no long-term effects on survival of birds when conducted properly, and blood sampling has become a vital addition to the toolbox of many ornithologists. However, many of the studies that concluded that blood sampling had negligible effects on birds used approaches that did not account for temporary emigration and probability of capture. To date, the only study to have done so found that blood sampling had a strong negative effect on survival. We conducted a mark–recapture analysis of 8 years of banding and bleeding data on Eastern …

Female Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Reproductive Class And Male-Female Interactions During The Breeding Season, Meagan E. Jones

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study examined whether female reproductive class (i.e., presence or absence of a calf) in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) affects female behavior and male-female interactions on the Hawaiian breeding grounds. From 2003-2008, 295 female-calf groups (with or without a male escort) and 256 female no-calf groups (with a male) were observed. Forty-one female no-calf groups were confirmed male-female pairs by genetic sexing or photo-identification. Focal follows of 36 male-female pairs and 50 female-calf groups (29 escorted and 21 unescorted female-calf groups) were analyzed for time budget and movement estimates. Relative fluke size (fluke photogrammetry, n=30) and sighting histories …

Kidney Of The Frog, Felix Taubman

Bachelors’ Theses

The frog has been used exclusively in both high school and college as the main source of experimental biological and zoological studies. Because it is so easily obtained and so finely adapted to our purposes, we chose it as the specimen upon which to do our thesis work. Much has been done experimentally on the kidneys with the frog. The purpose of this thesis is to present a general view of the external and microscopic anatomy of the frog kidney and with this as a groundwork to present the problems of secretion; whether secretion is carried on by the renal …