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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 ...
Effects of riparian buffer width on stream salamander populations in the southern Appalachian Mountains
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
Salamanders in the Appalachian region have been extensively studied, but the majority of research assessing the impacts of logging has focused on terrestrial species that are not dependent on stream habitats for egg deposition or larval development...
Raptor and wading bird migration in Veracruz, Mexico : spatial and temporal dynamics, flight performance, and monitoring applications
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
-annual variation, flocking behavior, and flight mode, and briefly discuss issues related to their stopover ecology and conservation. One of the outstanding findings of this project is documenting the migration of over 0.8 million birds in spring and over 5...
Identification and characterization of M cells in the mammalian conjunctiva
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
The M cell is a morphologically and functionally distinct epithelial cell found in the follicle associated epithelium (FAE) above organized lymphoid tissue at distinct locations along mucosal surfaces. By sampling antigens ...
Age effects on reproductive behavior in the treehopper umbonia crassiscornis (Hemipera: membracidae)
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
In many animal species females select mates based on male age. This choice is often linked to the reproductive benefits females derive. Age-based choice is also influenced by variation in the ability of males to find and ...
Genetic diversity and distribution of the ringed salamander (ambystoma annulatum) across multiple spatial scales
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)
that correspond to watershed boundaries. Within each cluster, I found evidence for decreased gene flow in recent generations, possibly due to the extensive timber harvest and land conversion of the CIH post European settlement. Over smaller spatial scales, I found...
Friends in high places : ecology of mycorrhizal associations in alpine plant communities
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2010)
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 ...
Approaches for unveiling the kinetic mechanisms of voltage gated ion channels in neurons
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)
Ionic currents drive cellular function within all living cells to perform highly specific tasks. For excitable cells, such as muscle and neurons, voltage-gated ion channels have finely tuned kinetics that allow the ...
From unique killers to a jumbo genome - isolation and characterization of phages that infect the plant pathogen, Agrobacterium tumefaciens
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)
cell growth and blocks cell division in a broad range of bacteria including Agrobacterium, Sinorhizobium, and Escherichia strains. Another member of the Podoviridae family, Atu_ph08, carries remnants of a lysogen and shares 60.2% identity...
Mechanisms of photoreceptor mediated responses in photomorphogenesis and phototropism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)
Photoreceptor facilitated light perception provides plants with critical environmental information from which they can direct their growth. We investigated the early photomorphogenic responses in Glycine max and Glycine ...
Effects of prescribed fire and timber harvest on terrestrial salamander abundance, behavior, and microhabitat use
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014)
The goal of my dissertation was to assess how terrestrial salamanders respond to two common forest management practices -- prescribed fire and timber harvest. Previous studies have reported that timber harvest adversely ...
Elucidation of the genetic control of carbohydrate partitioning in Zea mays
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)
Carbohydrate partitioning, the process of transporting carbohydrates from sites of synthesis in hotosynthetic tissue to developing sink tissues, is crucial for the growth, development, and yield in plants and crops. ...
Mechanisms of the phototropic pathway
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)
Plants are sessile organisms and therefore are limited in their ability to gather resources. Therefore, they have evolved several mechanisms that aid them in their quest to gather light, water and nutrients. One such ...
Identification, characterization and use of novel thermogenetic tools in drosophilia melanogaster
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)
Extrinsic control of neural activity is necessary to decipher the neural mechanisms underlying behavior. Molecular tools that employ light (optogenetics) or temperature (thermogenetics) are primarily used for extrinsic ...
Flipping the switch : regulation of proliferation and differentiation in adult muscle stem cells
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
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 ...
Tales of an 'invisible' life stage : survival and physiology among terrestrial juvenile ambystomatid salamanders
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)
The vital rates (e.g., survival, growth, and reproduction) of distinct life stages within a species are known to influence the growth and persistence of populations. As such, studies describing stage-specific vital rates, ...
Examination of exogenous estrogenic chemical exposure and altered fetal nutrition in the CD-1 mouse fetus
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
My dissertation examines two issues related to disruption of fetal growth: exposure to exogenous estrogenic chemicals and altered nutrition. My first set of studies was aimed at manipulating isoflavones in feed on serum ...
Genome-wide exploration of direct GBX2 target genes and their contributions to mouse development
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2013)
[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 ...
A multi-scale investigation of ecologically relevant effects of agricultural runoff on amphibians
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
Modification of landscapes for agricultural production can introduce agrochemicals into surface waters and degrade aquatic habitats used by many amphibians for breeding and larval development. Although many ecotoxicological ...
The molecular underpinnings of neuronal cell identity in the stomatogastric ganglion of cancer borealis
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)
of extensive molecular sequence knowledge in crustaceans. Here we generated de novo transcriptome assembly from central nervous system tissue for C. borealis producing 42,766 contigs, focusing on an initial identification, curation, and comparison of genes...