Journal of Undergraduate Research

Joss R. Wertz and Dr. C. Riley Nelson, Biology Mongolia is as large as the eastern United States with the lowest population density in Asia. This has kept development and its effects at a minimum. Thus, Mongolia retains much of the biota that has been lost in the surrounding countries. In the past 15 years, […]

Jeffrey Staples and Dr. Keith Crandall, Biology Introduction Geneticists have successfully identified the sources of many diseases that are inherited according to Mendelian rules (e.g. cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease). However, not all diseases are caused by one faulty gene; these so-called complex diseases (e.g. asthma, obesity, and diabetes) result from any number of mutated […]

Rustin Reed and Dr. Duke S. Rogers, Department of Biology We examined relationships among samples of the Dusky shrew (Sorex monticolus) in the Intermountain West, concentrating on Utah locations with the aim of clarifying the distribution of two continental groups identified in a recent study by Demboski and Cook (2001). Genealogies were derived from mitochondrial […]

Gabriel Proulx and Dr. Keith Crandall, Biology Department Sequencing genomes still requires considerable equipment and resources. While a full sequencing of all known species is obviously the end goal, analyzing ESTs, short sequences of expressed genes, can suffice in the meantime as an easier and less resource-intensive method to mapping out a species’ expressed genes. […]

Lacey Nay and Dr. Jerry Johnson, Biology A species’ life history traits, including growth and reproduction, follow patterns of natural selection. Evolution is driven by natural selection which, in short, can be described as the ability of an organism to conform to its environment (Pianka 2000). Individuals possessing those traits that are more favorable in […]

Scott Miller and Dr. Jerry Johnson, Biology Among some of the most exciting research in evolutionary biology involves animal social behavior. Of particular interest is whether social behaviors are inheritable. If social behaviors are inheritable, they become a selective force and are capable of shaping the life history of an animal. Dr. Culum Brown has […]

Quinn Martin and Dr. Byron Adams, Biology Abstract Species-specific food web relationships involving free-living microbivorous nematodes are not well established, yet critical to our understanding of their involvement in nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. Antarctic soil ecosystems are the simplest on earth and serve as a model system for exploring the role of biodiversity in […]

Nate Keplinger and Dr. Byron Adams, Biology Abstract Slugs and snails are pests that destroy various food crops throughout the entire world. To control their outbreak, Europeans have utilized the nematode Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita, a mollusc pathogen. This nematode has not been introduced into US agriculture because it has not been found in a mollusc pathogenic […]

Stephen Jenkins and Dr. Byron Adams, Biology Plant-parasitic nematodes cause an estimated $125 billion worth of crop losses globally each year. Fifteen percent of nematode species are plant-parasitic nematodes, and the most significant species parasitize roots. While the parasites don’t always kill the plants, they disrupt water transport and divert nutrients to themselves, causing considerable […]

Paul Frandsen and Dr. C. Riley Nelson, Biology Dance flies from the super family Empidoidea (Diptera:Empididae, Hybotidae) were collected from western Mongolia in June and July 2009. Historical published records of Empididae in Mongolia along with unpublished, more recently collected records from the Selenge River Basin were compared with the samples from western Mongolia. Thirteen […]