Superwarfarins are anticoagulant rodenticides that are 100 times more potent and 15 times more persistent than warfarin. They have been used since the 1980s and cause over 10,000 cases of accidental and intentional poisonings per year. Apart from inducing uncontrollable bleeding, by inhibiting the vitamin K cycle, superwarfarins can disrupt...
Advancements in molecular biology and computer science have enabled researchers the ability to investigate the transcriptome – the quantification of an organism’s RNA transcripts in response to its environment on a system wide scale. The collective chapters of this thesis utilize high-throughput RNA sequencing, which produces hundreds of millions of...
In the study of any developmental process, whether in plants, animals, or other models, it is prudent to consider the developmental position of the subjects being measured. This is generally not taken into consideration in grapevine studies despite a growing body of literature documenting that fruits within clusters develop and...
Managers of forest and plantation ecosystems are encountering growing problems involving plant pathogens and the expanding geographic ranges of these pathogens. Historically unexposed stands are exceptionally vulnerable when a non-native pathogen is introduced because these pathogens can cause devastating disease in a host population that lacks co-evolved resistance mechanisms. One...
The topics in this dissertation are centered around the way that trees respond to environmental stress in the climates where they occur. Though forests across the planet are expected to experience change in local climate due to historic and ongoing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of climate change will...
Cnidarians and their symbiotic dinoflagellates form a productive mutualism that shapes marine environments. In this symbiosis, dinoflagellate species from the family Symbiodiniacea reside within cnidarian host gastrodermal cells and provide the host with photosynthetically fixed carbon in exchange for host metabolites. This nutritional exchange allows both partners to thrive in...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) is a species with high phenotypic plasticity and a broad distribution that, in the last decade, has experienced climate stress-induced mortality called Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD). In order to help mitigate the effects of SAD in the future, we need a better understanding of aspen’s...
Soil nitrogen exists largely as organic matter, including plant liter, dead animal matter, and microbial necromass. About 90% of soil organic nitrogen is proteinaceous material that is too large for plants and microorganisms to assimilate directly. Protein depolymerization therefore plays a critical role in mobilizing this organic source of nitrogen,...
Grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV), the causal agent of red blotch disease (RBD) in grapevine, Vitis vinifera L., is an emerging pathogen of significance to the wine grape industry of Oregon, USA. To address knowledge gaps of GRBV epidemiology, spread of GRBV was evaluated in Oregon vineyards over four years....
Phytoplankton initiate the marine carbon cycle by fixing carbon dioxide into biologically available compounds. These abundant single celled organisms mediate carbon flux from the atmosphere to the deep ocean and are the base of the marine food web, supplying new carbon to higher trophic levels. Phytoplankton are highly diverse and...