Journal of Undergraduate Research

Crystal Komm and Dr. Keith A. Crandall, Zoology Astacin is a zinc-endopeptidase, originally described as a unique enzyme and first sequenced from the crayfish Astacus astacus (Geier 97). This project aimed to gather several Astacin gene sequences from multiple taxa of crayfish and to submit them to phylogenetic analysis using PAUP (Swofford 98). PAUP would […]

Niloufar Tabatabaei, Department of Zoology Introduction Pulmonary Hypoplasia is a lethal neonatal disorder associated with the reduction of thoracic volume due to skeletal dysplasia.’ The homozygous recessive chondrodysplasia (cho/ cho) in mice serves as our model enabling us to demonstrate how the cartilage matrix is tied together on a molecular level. Atypically wide type II […]

Cecily P. Vaughn and Dr. Randy Bennett, Zoology Development in animals is controlled by a set of genes called homeotic genes whose protein products regulate the expression of other genes. Although many homeotic genes have been locates in numerous organisms, there is still much that remains to be learned about the manner in which these […]

Heather Taylor and Dr. Edwin Lephart, Zoology Introduction: Calcium plays a major part in muscle contraction, bone growth, but especially in central nervous system (CNS) development and function. Calcium participates in neuronal growth and degeneration. For example, the CNS depends on calcium during the development of neuronal cytoskeletal structures and synapse formation. When there is […]

Niloufar Tabatabeai and Dr. John S. Gardner, Botany & Range Science Newbom, premature infants have greater susceptibility to infection compared to older newborn infants. Although the reason for greater susceptibility to bacterial infection in premature infants is unknown, there are many reports that focus on neutrophils as the defective cell type in the immature neonatal […]

Alison Swindle and Dr. Michael F. Whiting, Zoology Background The insect order Siphonaptera (fleas) has been historically significant for thousands of years. Beginning as early as 430 B.C. outbreaks of the bubonic plague have swept across continents and killed millions of people. Before fleas were linked with the plague, they were a little known order. […]

J. Daniel Rasband, Department of Zoology Abstract Several different methods have been employed in the extraction and amplification of ancient DNA (aDNA). The work in this thesis Is an effort to compare three popular extraction techniques, chelex, guanidine/ silica slurry, and phenol/chloroform, as applied to extracting DNA from the dentin of ancient teeth. Modern and […]

Michael F. Erickson, Department of Zoology Introduction Recent studies have shown that the cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) are produced by cells found in the zonaglomerulosa of the rat adrenal cortex (I ,2). These cytokines modify adrenal hormone release gland. Specifically, IL-6 stimulates the release of glucocorticoids from the zona fasciculata/reticularis (3) […]

Suzanne Reeve and Dr. Brian A. Maurer, Zoology The distribution and life history characteristics of organisms can be significantly affected by structural variation in their habitats. One major type of variation is spatial arrangement and whether a habitat extends continuously or exists in small, fragmented patches. The effects of this variation have been documented in […]

Patrick R. Olson and Dr. Reuben Ward Rhees, Zoology We have been investigating how stress affects physiological development. My interest dealt with the effects of stress on the immune system. Lymphocyte proliferation is a common measurement of immune function. A new paradigm for stress is being used dealing with maternal separation, performed under the ethical […]