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From developmental biology to tissue-engineering: printing blood vessels
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death and often requires vascular reconstruction. However, the use of synthetic materials and scaffold-based approaches has shown several limitations for small-diameter blood ...
Ecological conditions of secondary sexual dimorphism in salix glauca : fundamental and realized dimorphic niche
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2006)
This thesis explores the dimorphic niche of ecological conditions hypothesis as the selective force behind secondary sexual dimorphism in Salix glauca, a dioecious willow shrub. The dimorphic niche hypothesis predicts trait ...
Pollen-pistil interactions in nicotiana
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] To screen for potential mates, angiosperm pistils provide a physical and biochemical barrier that promotes the growth of desirable pollen while ...
The effects of histone acetylation on the maize allele PL1-blotched
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
Covalent modifications of DNA and nucleosomal histone proteins associated with eukaryotic chromatin have the potential to alter expression of a gene without change in its DNA sequence. One gene regulated through this ...
Call timing interactions, aggressive behavior, and the role of acoustic cues in chorus formation in treefrogs
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
I studied calling patterns and aggressive behavior of the Bird voiced treefrog, , to assess how dynamic call characters influences males and the factors influencing the onset of choruses and settling patterns of males in ...
Role of transmembrane protein strabismus in motor neuron migration in the zebrafish hindbrain
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
Nervous system development involves extensive cell migration, causing immature neurons to move from proliferative zones to specific locations to generate functional circuits. Defective in neuronal migration can cause severe ...
Obesity: a growing concern about fetal nutrition
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2006)
Obesity is a growing epidemic and a major health concern in the United States and elsewhere. The Fetal Basis of Adult Disease (FBAD) theory holds that events that occur during development can permanently alter gene expression ...
Effects and interactions of endocrine disrupting chemicals and diet on the mouse reproductive system
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
Recent studies have indicated that a number of ubiquitous chemicals found in the environment are linked to a myriad of health concerns, including reproductive abnormalities and increases in infertility, cancer, and obesity ...
Heterochrony of floral and mating system characters between Nicotiana longiflora and N. plumbaginifolia
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
The evolution of selfing is one the most fascinating and common trends observed in flowering plants. Selfing flowers are often smaller than their outcrossing relatives, with reduced reproductive effort. The selfing species ...
A study of readthrough therapy for spinal muscular atrophy in a transgenic mouse model
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is due to the loss of the telomeric survival motor neuron gene (SMN1) and results in degeneration of motor neurons, ...
Aquatic and terrestrial exposure of amphibians to estrogenic endocrine disrupting contaminants
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
Hormones play an important role in shaping growth and development. Endocrine disrupting contaminants (EDCs) come from the external environment and can mimic or block internal hormone pathways. Many amphibians begin to ...
Cellular behaviors regulating tangential migration of facial branchiomotor neurons in the zebrafish embryo
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
Development of the nervous system is characterized by intricate processes like neuronal migration, axon outgrowth and guidance and synaptic connections to their targets. These processes involve navigation of the migrating ...
Understanding genomic evolution and segregation distortion in solanaceae : a COSII linkage map in Nicotiana
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
Genetic linkage maps are excellent tools to investigate genomic evolution, genomic structure and quantitative trait loci. In our study, we created comparative linkage maps in a reciprocal cross between Nicotiana longiflora ...
Generating temperature sensitive inteins for studying gene functions
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
Reversible and easy to use, temperature-sensitive (TS) mutations, are powerful tools to study the functions of all genes, including essential and pleiotropic ones. However, the rarity of TS alleles and the difficulty of ...
Interaction of RNA polymerase II and the RNA silencing machinery in heterochromatin formation of Drosophila
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The eukaryotic chromosome is composed of two structurally and functionally distinct compartments. The loosely packaged region is known as the euchromatin, ...
Drug resistance in D. discoideum: isolation of 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide resistant mutants
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2005)
The drug 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) displays both carcinogenic and antitumor effects, a well known characteristic of many chemotherapeutic drugs. In addition 4NQO shares a similar operating mechanism with the commonly ...
Spinal cord injury induces changes in ion channels of reticulospinal neurons in larval lamprey
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
After spinal cord injury in larval lamprey, RS neurons regenerate their axons (Davis and McClellan, 1994a,b), restore synaptic contacts and most of the original locomotor functions (McClellan, 1998). It was previously ...
Gray treefrog breeding site selection and offspring performance in response to forest management
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
Amphibian diversity and abundance are generally reduced following clearcut logging. These impacts often last for decades, but little is known about why diversity and abundance are depressed. I examined gray treefrog breeding ...
The effects of axotomy on the biophysical properties of reticulospinal neurons in larval lamprey
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2006)
Following severe spinal cord injury (SCI), in adult higher vertebrates there is little or no axonal regeneration, and animals remain paralyzed below the lesion. In contrast, lower vertebrates such as the lamprey, following ...
Diversification in plant feeding insects : patterns of host-plant specialization and mating signal evolution inferred from species-level phylogeny and population genetics
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Speciation yields two reproductively isolated groups capable of living in sympatry without cross-fertilization. Thi inability to hybridize is caused ...