Mutualisms are ubiquitous in nature, yet these interactions often vary in strength and persistence. This variation raises the questions of what determines whether mutualisms persist or vanish, and how does variation in the ...

Knowledge of social structure is important to understanding the overall evolution and behavioral ecology of a species as it ultimately influences spatial patterns and gene flow. This dissertation focuses on the social ...

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 ...

While there are many types of habitat loss and degradation (e.g., agriculture, land development), many studies have focused on the impacts of logging on wildlife populations and on ecosystem processes. Little information, ...

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Ceramides are intimately involved in a wide range of cellular processes. In mammals, de novo ceramide synthesis is catalyzed by the 6 ceramide synthase enzymes, which...

Adult muscle stem cells or satellite cells are the committed somatic stem cells responsible for maintenance and regeneration of adult skeletal muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle is capable of multiple rounds of complete ...

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The development of a complex organism, such as a plant, requires the function of multiple pathways that regulate various aspects of the developmental process. Here pathways...

The research presented here was focused on the effects of interactions between Nicotiana longiflora and N. plumbaginifolia on their mating systems. First, I conducted a series of observations and pollination experiments ...

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Xenoestrogens (XE) are chemicals in the environment that mimic the body's natural steroidal estrogens. Developmental exposure to XE may interfere with normal hormonal signaling...

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 ...

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The cells that comprise the vertebrate nervous system require molecular cues to determine their cellular position, identity and their ability to make appropriate connections...

Partner abundance affects costs and benefits in obligate mutualisms, but its role in facultative partnerships is less clear. I investigated this topic in a small alpine pollination web in the Colorado Rocky Mountains ...