A study of Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea Müller) colonization in relation to changes in aquatic vegetation community as a result of management of Hydrilla verticillata (L. f.) Royle with grass carp was conducted at the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility (LAERF), Lewisville, TX, from April 2015 through October 2016. Percent vegetation cover, C. fluminea abundance and water quality metrics (pH, turbidity, conductivity, DO, calcium, chlorophyll a) from 16 experimental subjects were analyzed. Treatments included four replicated grass carp stocking densities; 1-control with no fish stocked (n = 4), 2-low density of 40-43 fish per vegetated ha (n = 4), 3-medium density of 72-81 fish per vegetated ha (n = 4) and 4-high density of 110-129 fish per vegetated ha (n = 4). Data analysis showed statistical significance in the relation of C. fluminea abundance to percent vegetation cover (multiple linear regression, r2 = 0.820), grass carp stocking densities (two-way analysis of variance, p = <0.001) and chlorophyll a (multiple linear regression, r2 = 0.339). Findings of this research indicate the possibility that management of hydrilla had enabled establishment of secondary invasive species.

This thesis addresses three interrelated challenges of disease mapping and contributes a new approach for improving visualization of disease burdens to enhance disease surveillance systems. First, it determines an appropriate threshold choice (smoothing parameter) for the adaptive kernel density estimation (KDE) in disease mapping. The results show that the appropriate threshold value depends on the characteristics of data, and bandwidth selector algorithms can be used to guide such decisions about mapping parameters. Similar approaches are recommended for map-makers who are faced with decisions about choosing threshold values for their own data. This can facilitate threshold selection. Second, the study evaluates the relative performance of the adaptive KDE and spatial empirical Bayes for disease mapping. The results reveal that while the estimated rates at the state level computed from both methods are identical, those at the zip code level are slightly different. These findings indicate that using either the adaptive KDE or spatial empirical Bayes method to map disease in urban areas may provide identical rate estimates, but caution is necessary when mapping diseases in non-urban (sparsely populated) areas. This study contributes insights on the relative performance in terms of accuracy of visual representation and associated limitations. Lastly, the study contributes …

Plant architecture is an important agronomic trait driven by meristematic activities. Indeterminate meristems set repeating phytomers while determinate meristems produce terminal structures. The centroradialis/terminal flower1/self pruning (CETS) gene family modulates architecture by controlling determinate and indeterminate growth. Cotton (G. hirsutum) is naturally a photoperiodic perennial cultivated as a day-neutral annual. Management of this fiber crop is complicated by continued vegetative growth and asynchronous fruit set. Here, cotton CETS genes are phylogenetically and functionally characterized. We identified eight CETS genes in diploid cotton (G. raimondii and G. arboreum) and sixteen in tetraploid G. hirsutum that grouped within the three generally accepted CETS clades: flowering locus T (FT)-like, terminal flower1/self pruning (TFL1/SP)-like, and mother of FT and TFL1 (MFT)-like. Over-expression of single flower truss (GhSFT), the ortholog to Arabidopsis FT, accelerates the onset of flowering in Arabidopsis Col-0. In mutant rescue analysis, this gene driven by its native promoter rescues the ft-10 late flowering phenotype. GhSFT upstream sequence was used to drive expression of the uidA reporter gene. As anticipated, GUS accumulated in the vasculature of Arabidopsis leaves. Cotton has five TFL1-like genes, all of which delay flowering when ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis; the strongest phenotypes fail to produce functional flowers. Three …

Plant microtubules play essential roles in cell processes such as cell division, cell elongation, and organelle organization. Microtubules are arranged in highly dynamic and ordered arrays, but unlike animal cells, plant cells lack centrosomes. Therefore, microtubule nucleation and organization are governed by microtubule-associated proteins, including a microtubule-severing protein, katanin. Mutant analysis and in vitro characterization has shown that the highly conserved katanin is needed for the organization of the microtubule arrays in Arabidopsis and rice as well as in a variety of animal models. Katanin is a protein complex that is part of the AAA+ family of ATPases. Katanin is composed of two subunits, katanin-p60, a catalytic subunit and katanin-p80, a regulatory subunit. Spastin is another MT-severing protein that was identified on the basis of its homology to katanin. In animal cells, spastin is also needed for microtubule organization, but its functionality has not yet been investigated in plants. To initiate an exploration of the function of katanin-p60 and spastin in Zea mays, my research goal was to generate tools for the expression and purification of maize katanin-p60 and spastin proteins in vitro. Plasmids that express katanin-p60 and spastin with N-terminal GST tags were designed and constructed via In-Fusion® cloning …

Myosin subfragment-2 (S2) is a coiled coil linker between myosin subfragment-1 and light meromyosin (LMM). This dissertation examines whether the myosin S2 coiled coil could regulate the amount of myosin S1 heads available to bind actin thin filaments by modulating the stability of its coiled coil. A stable myosin S2 coiled coil would have less active myosin S1 heads compared to a more flexible myosin S2 coiled coil, thus causing increased force production through acto-myosin interaction. The stability of the myosin S2 coiled coil was modulated by the binding of a natural myosin S2 binding protein, myosin binding protein C (MyBPC), and synthetic myosin S2 binding proteins, stabilizer and destabilizer peptide, to myosin S2. Competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) experiments revealed the cross specificity and high binding affinity of the synthetic peptides to the myosin S2 of human cardiac and rabbit skeletal origins. Gravitational force spectroscopy (GFS) was performed to test the stability of myosin S2 coiled coil in the presence of these myosin S2 binding proteins. GFS experiments demonstrated the stabilization of the myosin S2 coiled coil by the binding of MyBPC and stabilizer peptide to myosin S2, while the binding of destabilizer peptide to the same resulted …

The GABAergic system in adult sensory cortex is affected by sensory deprivation, but little is known about how this predominant inhibitory system is affected during ontogeny. The present study investigates developmental effects of whisker trimming on GABAa receptors in rat barrel cortex. Rats trimmed for 6 wk beginning at birth and adulthood showed similar decreases in [3H]muscimol binding in deprived relative to non-deprived barrels, suggesting absence of a critical period.

Recently, three distinct isoforms of phospholipase D (PLD) were identified in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLD α represents the well-known form found in plants, while PLD β and γ have been only recently discovered (Pappan et al., 1997b; Qin et al., 1997). These isoforms differ in substrate selectivity and cofactors required for activity. Here, I report that PLD β and γ isoforms were active toward N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), but PLD α was not. The ability of PLD β and γ to hydrolyze NAPE marks a key difference from PLD α. N-acylethanolamines (NAE), the hydrolytic products of NAPE by PLD β and γ, inhibited PLD α from castor bean and cabbage. Inhibition of PLD α by NAE was dose-dependent and inversely proportional to acyl chain length and degree of unsaturation. Enzyme kinetic analysis suggested non-competitive inhibition of PLD α by NAE 14:0. In addition, a 1.2-kb tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cDNA fragment was isolated that possessed a 74% amino acid identity to Arabidopsis PLD β indicating that this isoform is expressed in tobacco cells. Collectively, these results provide evidence for NAE producing PLD activities and suggest a possible regulatory role for NAE with respect to PLD α.

Copper exposures of 400 μg/L for 5,10 and 15 days resulted in no significant differences in antibody titers of largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides injected with Aeromonas hydrophila compared to control-injected bass. Twenty days of exposure did significantly increase titers. The control group had significantly lower antibody titers than either control-injected or copper-exposed.

In order to gain a better understanding of this microorganismand its role in human pathogenesis, a physical map of Moraxella catarrhalis type strain ATCC25238 was constructed using pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) in combination with Southern hybridization techniques. Restriction endonucleases Not I, Rsr II, and Sma I were used to digest the chromosomal DNA. An overlapping circular map was generated by cross-hybridization of isolated radiolabeled fragments of Moraxella catarrhalis genomic DNA to dried PFGE gels. The number and location of the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA genes were determined by digestion with l-Ceul enzyme and by Southern hybridization. Virulence-associated genes, the gene for β-lactamase, and housekeeping genes were also placed onto the physical map.

A total of 670 critical thermal maxima (CTMax) and minima (CTMin) were determined for three freshwater fishes acclimated to three constant temperatures and a diel regimen cycling between the lowest and highest acclimation temperatures. In all species temperature tolerance was directly related to acclimation temperature and slopes relating these variables indicate that acclimation temperature has a greater influence on tolerance of low rather than high temperatures. CTMax and CTMin values generated following exposure to 32 days of oscillating temperatures indicate that in general, fishes had temperature tolerance acclimation states consistent with the average temperature and not either the highest or lowest temperature of the diel cycle.

No apparent repression of pyr gene expression in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is observed upon addition of exogenous pyrimidines to the growth medium. Upon introduction of the subcloned Escherichia coli pyrBI genes for aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) into a P. aeruginosa pyrB mutant strain, repression was observed in response to exogenously fed pyrimidine compounds. The results proved that it is possible to bring about changes in pyrimidine nucleotide pool levels and changes in transcriptional regulation of gene expression as a result. Thus, the lack of regulatory control in P. aeruginosa pyr gene expression is not due to an inability to take up and incorporate pyrimidine compounds into metabolic pools, or to an inability of the RNA polymerase to respond to regulatory sequences in the DNA but is probably due to a lack of specific regulatory signals in the promoter of the genes themselves.

Ascaris suum were exposed to a number of stressors, including heavy metals and both high (40°C) and low (18°C) temperatures. The 70kD and 90kD heat shock proteins (HSPs) in the different A. suum tissues were analyzed by Western blot and quantitated by Macintosh Image Program.

In the southwestern United States there is a delicate balance between the existing grasslands and the rodent fauna. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the influence of secondary succession of native grasslands upon the ecology and distribution of small rodents. Two methods of determining the rodent species were plot quadrates and trap lines using Sherman live traps.

The TOL plasmids of Pseudomonas putida encode enzymes required for the oxidation of toluene and other related aromatic compounds. These genes are organized into two operons, the xylUWCMABN operon (upper), and the xylXYZLTEGFJQKIH operon (lower). Here we report the nucleotide sequence of a 7107 bp segment of the TOL pDK1 plasmid encoding the region just upstream of the "upper" operon through the genes encoding xylUWCMA. Sequence analysis, comparison of base-usage patterns, codon-usage patterns, and intergenic distances between genes help support the idea that the "upper" and "lower" operons have evolved independently in different genetic backgrounds and have only more recently been brought together in TOL and related catabolic plasmids.

The role of specific amino acid residues in β-ketoadipate succinyl-coenzyme A transferase II from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus was investigated. A 1412 base pair BamiHI-EcoRI fragment carrying the catIJ genes was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and inserted into pUCl9 to generate the plasmid pCATEl9. Escherichia coli DH5α (pCATEl9) carrying only the catlJ genes expressed 3-fold higher enzyme activity than the parent strain. Two mutants were constructed by site directed mutagenesis so that glutamate was replaced by a glutamine at positions Gln155 and Gln193 in the ß subunit of the primary amino acid sequence of the CoA transferase. Both mutants produced transferase that was catalytically active suggesting that Glu155 and Glu193 do not participate directly in catalysis.

General objectives of my study were to describe the reproductive ecology of gray gulls in the large Lealtad colony, with emphasis on demographic parameters and physiological adaptations of eggs and chicks, which would complete some original objectives established in the early 1980's by Guerra and Fitzpatrick. Specifically, my study focused on describing, then comparing with other desert and non-desert nesting larids, interactive effects of ambient physical conditions and nest-site predation on eggs and chicks.

The problem of using a state adopted textbook written to apply to a large body of students with varying interests and needs was overcome by using a detailed syllabus that arranged course content in a meaningful sequence that appealed to student interest. The outlined syllabus prepared a two semester life science curriculum to be used by the teacher to guide lesson planning. Both semesters were divided into three units each. Materials included in the syllabus were given to actual student groups in real classroom settings. Since hands on learning was an important part of classroom instruction, two laboratory sections were included in the appendices to be used with the syllabus.

A 2 x 2 factorial design investigated effects of sediment nitrogen and water potassium levels on autofragment production. Reduced nitrogen levels significantly increased autofragment production whereas potassium levels did not significantly alter production. Up to 50% of autofragment production abscised from parent plants grown under low nitrogen conditions compared to 12% or less under high nitrogen conditions.

In situ hybridization was used to examine effects of monocular enucleation on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit cc3 mRNA in the rat dLGNand visual cortex. After 28 days postoperative, there were no significant differences in α3 mRNA density between the contralateral (deprived) and ipsilateral (non-deprived) sides. The lack of obvious effects of visual deprivation on α3 mRNA density suggests that other factors, possibly intrinsic to dLGNand visual cortex, govern the postnatal expression of α3 mRNA.

The aim of this study was to design a resolution typing system for the HLA-B gene. This technique involves a one-step PCR reaction utilizing genomic DNA and sequence-specific primers to determine the specificity of each allele and to produce a larger primer data base ideal for serological analysis. The application of this technique to serological analysis can improve serology detection which is currently hindered by antibody cross-reactivity and the unavailability of useful typing reagents.

Sensory neocortex contains a significant number of inhibitory neurons that use gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as their neurotransmitter. Functional roles for these neurons have been identified in physiological studies. For example, in primary somatosensory cortex (SI), blockade of GABAa receptors with bicuculline leads to expansion of receptive fields (RFs). The magnitude of RF enlargement varies between SIpopulations of GABAergic neurons were identified by labeling specific calcium binding proteins.

One purpose of this investigation is to determine the fatty acid and lipid content of typical Vibrio cholerae cells. The comparison of cholera lipid constituents with those of closely-related bacteria might be of taxonomic value. Furthermore, chemical characterization of the cholera vibrio could provide useful criteria for identification of these disease-producing microorganisms.

A number of protein kinases have been shown to undergo autophosphorylation, but few have demonstrated a coordinate increase or decrease in enzymatic activity as a result. Described here is a novel S6 kinase isolated from human placenta which autoactivates through autophosphorylation in vitro. This S6/H4 kinase, purified in an inactive state, was shown to be a protein of Mr of 60,000 as estimated by SDS-PAGE and could catalyze the phosphorylation of the synthetic peptide S6-21, the histone H4, and myelin basic protein. Mild digestion of the inactive S6/H4 kinase with trypsin was necessary, but not sufficient, to activate the kinase fully

The purpose of the research was to treat immunodeficient mice, implanted with colon-25 tumors, with continuous and interrupted electrochemical therapy (ECT). ECT involves the placement of two electrodes, an anode near the center of the tumor and a cathode into the tumor periphery. A constant voltage is applied across the electrodes for a given period of time. The data showed that the interrupted and continuous ECT resulted in a decrease in mean tumor growth as compared to that of the sham controls. The histology of both ECT groups showed an increase presence of large vacuoles, randomly distributed tumor cells as well as the presence of "crevicing" in the medullary tissue. The differential leukocyte counts showed a distinct neutrophilia and lymphopenia in all groups at day 20 post tumor implantation. The results from the experimental groups appeared to support the findings of previous investigators.