Surrounding the brain but contained within the skull is a dynamic organ that functions to physically and chemically maintain the typical functioning of the brain. This organ is usually appreciated only as a series of layered ...

Understanding the evolution of sensory perception is essential in explaining organismal behavior. Organisms using environmental stimuli to navigate their environments, avoid predation, capture prey, and find a mate, have ...

The long-held belief that the lungs were devoid of bacteria was largely perpetuated by the fact that most bacteria on earth are not cultivable using standard culture methods. Using culture-independent methods the lungs of ...

Gut microbiome (GM), the complex community that combines all bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi located in the gut of human or animal, plays a significant role in host health and disease. Animal model are widely used ...

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Skeletal morphology is determined by a combination of genetic background and phenotypic plasticity induced by mechanical loading. The changes in limb ...

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistance and lack of effective antibiotics pose a serious threat to animal health and public health. Host antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) show broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity ...

The research work of this thesis has focused on the midgut escape barrier and the dissemination mechanism of alphaviruses in Ae. aegypti. Primarily, we identified and characterized Ae. aegypti MMPs that are seemingly ...

Ticks are globally renowned vectors for numerous zoonoses. Ixodid ticks transmit a variety of viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens to their vertebrate hosts. Because of the expansion of the geographic ranges of both ...

Locomotion is essential for survival in many taxa. It also varies greatly among organisms, including primates. Studying locomotor diversity in extant and fossil primates requires an understanding of form-function relationships. ...