Physical mapping and genome sequencing are underway for the ≈17 Gb wheat genome. Physical mapping methods independent of meiotic recombination, such as radiation hybrid (RH) mapping, will aid precise anchoring of BAC contigs in the large regions of suppressed recombination in Triticeae genomes. Reports of endosperm development following pollination with...
Hybridization has been identified as a significant factor in the evolution of plants as groups of interbreeding species retain their phenotypic integrity despite gene exchange among forms. Recent studies have identified similar interactions in animals; however, the role of hybridization in the evolution of animals has been contested. Here we...
Invasive species can alter the succession of ecological communities because they are
often adapted to the disturbed conditions that initiate succession. The extent to which this
occurs may depend on how widely they are distributed across environmental gradients and
how long they persist over the course of succession. We focus...
Understanding seasonal migration and localized persistence of populations is critical for effective species harvest and conservation management. Pacific salmon (genus Oncorhynchus) forecasting models predict stock composition, abundance, and distribution during annual assessments of proposed fisheries impacts. Most models, however, fail to account for the influence of biophysical factors on year-to-year...
Spawning salmon create patches of disturbance through redd digging which can reduce macroinvertebrate abundance and biomass in spawning habitat. We asked whether displaced invertebrates use non-spawning habitats as refugia in streams. Our study explored how the spatial and temporal distribution of macroinvertebrates changed during a pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) spawning...
Deforestation and conversion of native habitats continues to be the leading driver of biodiversity and ecosystem service loss. A number of conservation policies and programs are implemented—from protected areas to payments for ecosystem services (PES)—to deter these losses. Currently, empirical evidence on whether these approaches stop or slow land cover...
The ascomycete Geosmithia morbida and the walnut twig beetle Pityophthorus juglandis are associated with thousand
cankers disease of Juglans (walnut) and Pterocarya (wingnut). The disease was first reported in the western United States
(USA) on several Juglans species, but has been found more recently in the eastern USA in the...
Grassland prairies of western Oregon and Washington are among the most endangered ecosystems in the United States.
Active management and restoration are needed to promote biodiversity in the region. To support plant production for use
in habitat restoration, we developed germination protocols for greenhouse propagation of Iris tenax (Oregon iris)....
Based on regional-scale studies, aboveground production and litter decomposition are thought to positively covary, because they are driven by shared biotic and climatic factors. Until now we have been unable to test whether production and decomposition are generally coupled across climatically dissimilar regions, because we lacked replicated data collected within...
The dynamics of the Min-protein system help Escherichia coli regulate the process of cell division by identifying the center of the cell. While this system exhibits robust bipolar oscillations in wild-type cell shapes, recent experiments have shown that when the cells are mechanically deformed into wide, flattened out, irregular shapes,...