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Quantifying the effects of insectary plants on the abundance of natural enemies : implications for controlling insect pests in an organic cabbage eco-system
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2017)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Farmscaping is an ecological approach to pest management that involves planting non-crop plants to boost natural enemy abundance and suppress pest ...
Indirect effects of invasive insect management on forest insect abundance
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)
Invasive species, climate change, habitat destruction, and pesticides are severely threatening insect biodiversity on a global scale. In particular, invasive species are arriving in novel habitats at accelerating rates and are one of the greatest...
Interactions between dioecious plants and insect herbivore chewing vibrations and life history and laboratory rearing of the red admiral, Vanessa atalanta
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023)
organism for studying migration patterns and effects of climate change. Most previous red admiral research focused on wild populations. Establishing laboratory colonies allow for experimentation with a multitude of lab-based plant-insect interactions. We...
The role of ERF transcription factors in defenses against specialist and generalist herbivores in Arabidopsis thaliana
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2010)
factors and cis-elements important in differential responses in Arabidopsis thaliana after attack by aphids, the specialist caterpillar, and the generalist caterpillar, Spodoptera exigua. Insect-specific changes in gene expression were observed...
A digestive phospholipase a2 in Midguts of worker honey bees, Apis mellifera : significance in lipid nutrition and health
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018)
Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) catalyzes hydrolysis of the fatty acid moiety from the sn-2 position of phospholipids. At least 16 groups of PLA2s are known in mammals. In insects, PLA2s occur in several tissues, where they act in a variety of biological...
High density mapping and quantitative trait loci analysis for fungal diseases in vitis aestivalis-derived 'Norton' and breeding for low palmitic acid in glycine max
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2017)
Vitis aestivalis-derived 'Norton', the official grape of the State of Missouri, is grown in many U.S. regions where V. vinifera production requires extensive pesticide use for fungal disease management. To identify genetic factors of resistance...
The seasonal occurrence, soil distribution and flight characteristics of Curculio sayi (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in mid-Missouri
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007)
operation. Of these two species, the lesser chestnut weevil (C. sayi) has long been reported as the most common and most damaging chestnut pest insect species. Our study shows a bimodal emergence pattern for C. sayi, a finding not previously documented...
Determination of trace elements levels in plasma from larvae in the course of baculoviral and bacterial infections by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009)
While a number of studies have examined the effect of infections on the trace elements status of mammals, not any similar study in insects are found. In this study, we used inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to quantify trace...
Exploring broader roles of the plant immune regulator SRFR1 in plant development and defense
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Tomato plants are attacked by different pathogens, such as the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato that causes tomato speck disease, and herbivores such as Spodoptera...
Effect of climate change, drought, and insects on oak-pine forests in the Ozark highlands
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)
. Such decline became increasingly severe as numerous dense oak forests in this region approaching physiological maturity. Repeated droughts and insect outbreaks in the Ozarks Highlands from 1998 to 2015 accelerate the decline process and resulted in increased...
Consequences of plant water limitation for aphids, their natural enemies, and insect communities
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Climate change is causing an increase in drought events around the world. Water limitation affects the quality and quantity of plant resources for herbivorous insects, resulting...
Associations between Wolbachia, maize and Diabrotica virgifera virgifera
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
Wolbachia hosts induce or vector serious human diseases resulting in the loss of millions of lives annually. The majority of differentially expressed genes identified in a microarray experiment performed to locate endogenous sources of D. virgifera virgifera...
Rust and leaf spot diseases on American elderberry plants
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2017)
Elderberry rust (Puccinia sambuci Schewin.) Arthur (=P. bolleyana) and leaf spot diseases are frequently found in commercial American elderberry (Sambucus nigra L. subsp. canadensis L.) plantings throughout the growing season in Missouri. Thus...
Understanding the insect immune responses to Yersinia pestis using Drosophila melanogaster
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)
heightened sensitivity to the flea immune response. Here it is shown that LOS is required for early survival in the flea. New models are described using Drosophila melanogaster to get a more precise look at the interaction between Y. pestis and insect immune...
Understanding genome composition of eusocial hymenopteran insects
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)
distribution, and a biased tendency of genes to be located in low GC regions. In this dissertation, we sought to determine whether those features are specific to Apis or shared with other insects and the biological meaning of those features. Chapter 1 reviews...
Effects of stress, genetics, and environment on microbiome composition in western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera Leconte)
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023)
are slow to reach the market. Insect microbiomes have been shown to enhance host nutrition, disrupt plant defenses, and protect against diseases, but are also capable of inducing mortality in certain situations. Thus, understanding WCR microbial communities...
The expression and regulation on antimicrobial peptide genes in insects: studies in the tobacco hornworm manduca sexta
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2011-05-10)
Insects have evolved an efficient innate immune system to combat microbes. Most of our knowledge of insect immunity comes from studies with dipteran and lepidopteran insects, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the tobacco hornworm...
Content extraction, analysis, and retrieval for plant visual traits studies
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2008)
and Arabidopsis insect damage calculation. For maize, a mixture of edge-based and region-based segmentation algorithm is developed to extract lesions caused by fungus; for Arabidopsis, a top-down segmentation process is employed to measure leaf area differences...
Development of model systems for the vector-host-pathogen interface of bubonic plague
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2013)
midgut environment of the vector. For this flea-borne disease, very little is known about the genetic factors that influence the establishment of infection in the flea midgut, the mechanism of transmission to naive hosts, trafficking of bacteria...
Buriscon regulated immune response in Drosophila melanogaster
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011)
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Bursicon is a heterodimeric neurohormone which binds to the receptor LGR2 and regulates various aspects in cuticle sclerotization and wing expansion in diverse insect orders...