Legislation to reduce the annual limit of field burning in Oregon has led to increased study of
alternative non-thermal grass-seed management methods. Of these methods, non-thermal residue
management, in combination with crop rotations and different tillage practices, offer potential to
equal or exceed crop production of conventional thermal production systems....
Various vineyard practices influence the quality of a wine. In 1999, three levels of nitrogen (N), two levels of tillage and two levels of irrigation were applied to Pinot noir grape cultivars at Benton Lane Vineyards in the Southern Willamette Valley. N treatments were zero, soil and foliar applications. Every...
Indole-3-carbinol (13C), a metabolite of glucobrassicin, is found in cruciferous vegetables. It is able to act as an inhibitor or promoter of carcinogenesis depending on the species, the carcinogen and when it is given in relation to the carcinogen. This is probably due to the fact that it reacts in...
The diageotropica (dgt) mutation has been proposed to affect either auxin
perception or responsiveness in tomato plants. Auxins and cytokinins are plant
growth regulators known to interact with each other via a variety of mechanisms.
Here, we report the interactions of auxins and cytokinins in VFN8 wild-type and
dgt mutant...
Cell lines deficient in certain genes of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system show a marked resistance to the cell killing or apoptotic effects of DNA alkylating agents. The molecular mechanism for this resistance is not yet understood, but is currently of great interest because of the recent use of...
The timber and Christmas tree industries are important components of the Pacific Northwest economy. A goal of both industries is to produce high quality trees with high growth rates. Accomplishing this requires increased genetic quality of the trees grown. Tissue culture provides the most promise for propagating these superior genotypes....
Age-related decline in the capacity of endogenous antioxidant systems
complicates pharmaceutical use by the elderly by potentially increasing the toxicity of
some compounds. Of particular interest is chemical detoxification via glutathione (GSH)
and attendant GSH-requiring detoxification enzymes, e.g. GSH peroxidases (GPX) and
GSH S-transferase (GST). These enzymes have been shown...
Organophosphate insecticides may produce sublethal, adverse effects on salmonid
growth, reproduction, maturation, swimming, and feeding. Chlorpyrifos, an
organophosphate insecticide, was detected by the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality in the Hood River and tributaries during March 1999 at levels exceeding state
water quality standards in the range of 0.011-0.482 μg/L....
Raspberry bushy dwarf virus (RBDV) infects red raspberry and black raspberry worldwide. Infection causes reduced vigor and drupelet abortion leading to crumbly fruit and reduced yields. While this crumbly fruit can still be used in juice, jam, and preserves, it cannot be used for the more valuable fresh and individually...
Auxin and ethylene regulate many important aspects of plant growth and development and are
essential to the plants survival. They help regulate such diverse processes as cell elongation,
growth of adventitious roots, fruit growth, germination, and a variety of other processes. Few
studies have examined how the hormones auxin and...
The acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) is among the most common primary cavity nesters of the Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) woodlands. Understanding their selection of granary sites is important in evaluating habitat quality and management actions. I hypothesized that granary locations would be consistent with the optimal foraging theory. Site...
A genetic selection study to determine the effects on egg hatchability and subsequent chick performance of Japanese quail eggs incubated at a 38.9° C (102° F) dry bulb temperature (Selected, S) when compared to 37.8 C (100°F) (Control, C) was conducted for four consecutive generations. Eggs from a randomly mated...
Gaps in the forest canopy allow more light to reach the understory. Since
light in the understory is heterogeneous, understanding the physiological
processes in gaps and non-gaps will improve estimates of carbon balance. This
research outlines an approach for defining carbon balance for Salal (Gaultheria
shallon Pursh.), a dominant understory...
The psychoactive component of marijuana, A9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is known
to have effects in humans that are mediated by the cannabinoid receptor (CB 1). Although a great deal of research has been done to confirm the interaction of exogenous cannabinoids with the CB 1 receptor, little is known about the receptor's...
Saturated hydraulid conductivity (Ks) is a central soil physical property in determining water movement and contaminant transport through soils; hence modeling this system requires an accurate determination of K. Decimeter-scale KS measurements employing cores or infiltrometers are used frequently, but field-scale KS values are required to encompass the full range...
Plasminogen activators (PAs) have been implicated in: ovulation, oocyte maturation, fertilization, implantation, and many other reproductive activities. Three pathways have been implicated in the activation of the PA regulatory system. These include the conventional PKC and cAMP-dependent signaling pathways, and also an independent pathway thought to be regulated by protein...
A lexicon to define the sensory properties of melted Cheddar cheese was created
using a trained descriptive panel. The lexicon characterized appearance (surface rupture,
meltedness, oiliness, and edge browning) and texture (stringiness, stretchiness,
springiness, firmness, toothpull, smoothness, cohesiveness, denseness, and chewiness).
Three brands of commercially available shredded Cheddar cheese were...
Little is known about Frankia, a gram-positive, nitrogen-fixing bacterium, because of the difficulty associated with isolating pure cultures. This nitrogen-fixing symbiosis involves Frankia and the roots of actinorhizal host plants belonging to eight plant families and 25 genera. These plants are important pioneer species traditionally found in nitrogen-poor soils and....
Sarcocystis neurona is the 1responsible for the disease Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM). Exposure rates to S. neurona across the United States is about 50%, yet only about 2% of exposed horses develop EPM. The cell-mediated immune (CMI) response is hypothesized to be important for protective immunity against this disease. The...
Horticultural and nursery crops are the leading agricultural commodity in Oregon. Among currently grown nursery plants, Verbena x hybrida is a staple ornamental. It is grown and shipped worldwide, thus requiring a high level of certainty concerning the plants’ health and potential viability. V. x hybrida cultivars have been infected...
The cabbage maggot, Delia radicum (L.) (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) is a serious
pest of cruciferous crops (i.e. broccoli, cabbage, turnip, rutabaga) in North America and
Europe (Coaker and Finch, 1971; Whistlecraft et al., 1985). The adult flies lay eggs
around the base and in cracks at the soil surface around wild...
The nursery industry plays a critical role in Oregon's economy. An increase in wood-boring insect, or borer, activity has impacted the industry. The goal of this research is to determine key borer species in the nursery industry, flight times so targeted spray schedules can be established, and assess grower knowledge...
Motivation: It can take considerable amounts of time and effort to use existing computational tools to analyze a small RNA sequence for the purpose of determining if it is characteristic of microRNA. It is similarly tedious to search for homologs to known microRNA sequences in the rapidly growing collection of...
Five new anti-zebrafish cytochrome P450 (CYP) antipeptide polyclonal antibodies were tested for tissue specificity using immunohistochemistry. The antibodies are for the zebrafish CYPs IA, 2K6, 2K7, 3A65 and 3C1. Three of these antibodies were also compared to existing antibodies made against CYP isozymes in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Individual staining...
Port-Orford-cedar (POC) (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana (A. Murl.) Parl) is an
important tree species native the coastal ranges of southern Oregon and northern
California. The tree is a false-cedar in the cypress (Cupressaceae) family and is used for
timber and planted as an ornamental. The tree in most of its native range...
Celiac disease, an autoimmune response triggered by the consumption of seed storage proteins of cereals, affects an estimated 1% of the human population. In the case of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), one of the world’s most consumed cereals, alcohol-soluble proteins, the gliadins, have been identified as the allergy-eliciting agents. Previous...
We are developing a flavin-containing (Fmo) knock-out mouse for Fmo2 that will be utilized to elucidate the role of active human FMO isoform 2 (FMO2.1) in xenobiotic metabolism and toxicity. Since FMO2 is primarily expressed in lung this will provide information on how 27% of African-Americans and 5% of Hispanics...
Winter hardiness in barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a trait targeted by breeding programs in order to expand the potential area of adaptation of fall-sown cereals. Vernalization requirement is an important factor in winter hardiness. A vernalization requirement is an extended period of low temperature required for transition from the vegetative...
The ionotropic glutamate receptors are ligand-gated ion channels that mediate the majority of excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. The three classes of ionotropic glutamate receptors are alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA), N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), and kainite. These three classes have unique subunits. NMDA receptors play important roles in development, forms of synaptic plasticity,...
Clostridium perfringens type A isolates produce the spore-specific enterotoxin, CPE, upon sporulation in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals. Spo0A is a response regulator representing the major transcription factor for sporulation initiation in C. perfringens. In Bacillus subtilis, a multicomponent phosphorelay involving five histidine kinases (KinA-KinE), the intermediate response...
The highly conserved multi-protein mismatch repair (MMR) system is known for its ability to correct post replication errors in genomic DNA. A hallmark of MMR deficiency in all organisms is microsatellite instability. The initiating proteins in the eukaryotic MMR system are hetrodimers formed with an integral MSH2 subunit and one...
Studies were conducted to assess influencing the effectiveness of sheep for grazing control of false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum) an invasive grass species. Orphan lambs were exposed to false brome via grass extract in their milk and naturally reared lambs were exposed by grazing dense stands of false brome with their...
Collaboration is crucial when advancing in scientific research. One person cannot
study all aspects of a system. That is why it is important for the scientific community to
communicate with each other and stay updated on research being conducted in other labs
around the world. In my research, I was...
Mammary tumors are the third most common tumor in cats after cutaneous neoplasia and lymphosarcoma. More than 80% of feline mammary tumors are adenocarcinomas, which are similar to human mammary adenocarcinomas in their biologic behavior and histologic characteristics. Despite treatment with radical mastectomy, feline mammary adenocarcinoma is associated with a...
Chlorinated and non-chlorinated solvents are used in a variety of industrial processes and as a consequence, they have become environmental contaminants as well. Because of this, they lead to both occupational and environmental exposures. Exposure to these compounds can potentially result in various forms of neurological damage with a wide...
The goal of this project was to develop and test non-herbicidal techniques that remove nonnative plant or weed seeds from the top 2 inches of the soil. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is currently restoring prairies in the Willamette Valley. Some areas of the Pacific Northwest have already seen loss of...
Methane hydrates and biohydrogen are two disparate subjects that are of interest in the growing field of alternative energy research. However, before commercial use becomes a viable option, each has challenges that need to be overcome. Methane hydrates require large investments of time and capital to locate. In this thesis,...
Cancer is class of diseases that has great diversity and unfortunately is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Chemotherapy remains an important cancer treatment modality, and superior chemotherapeutic drugs are constantly being sought. Gemcitabine is an anti-tumor chemotherapeutic drug and it is the first line...
Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α) and interferon gamma (IFN γ) were initially recognized as inflammatory mediators produced by immune cells in response to infectious agents or foreign material. (1,5) However, over the past decade much research in mammalian species has indicated that these proteins also play key roles in...
Pesticides are ubiquitous, with more than one billion tons of pesticide products used in the United States annually. These compounds are characterized by their toxic effects to the target organism; however, pesticides are also well known for their deleterious effects to non-target species. Because pesticides have ecological and human health...
Agricultural areas can be inhospitable to the attraction and maintenance of beneficial insects like natural enemies and pollinators and this can result in a decrease in the ecosystem services of pollination and pest control that these insects supply. If habitat can be created and maintained on-farm, an increase in the...
The entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana are commercially available as microbial control agents for the black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), the key root-feeding insect pest in Pacific Northwest small fruits and ornamentals. Understanding habitat selection is critical to improve the efficacy, persistence and cost of...
The western spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata
undecimpunctata) and the western striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma trivittatum) are
pests of many crops, including vegetable, fruit, and nursery crops. Pesticides are
commonly used to control this pest. Trap and kill technologies are under development as
use in an alternative control for cucumber...
Farmers rely almost exclusively on the imported European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) for fruit and vegetable crop pollination services. The recent decline in honeybee health has underscored the danger of relying on a single species to provide vital services. Increasing pollinator biodiversity with native bees may provide biological insurance against...
Farmers rely almost exclusively on the imported European honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) for fruit and vegetable crop pollination services. The recent decline in honeybee health has underscored he danger of relying on a single species to provide vital services. Increasing pollinator biodiversity with native bees may provide biological insurance against...
Mycoplasma haemolamae is associated with mild to marked anemia in stressed, immune-suppressed, and debilitated animals, and may be found in low numbers in healthy animals. The continued presence of the organism, detectable by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay, may be associated with an underlying problem, such as stress or immune-suppression...
The rate of melanoma among Asian American has been steadily increasing in the past
five years, while in other Asian countries, such as Japan, the incident rate remains relatively the
same. Does the culture and societal attitudes toward skin cancer make a difference in the incident
rate of melanoma? This...
Understanding the mechanisms through which stem cells self-renew is important for the development of new therapies to repair and restore damaged tissue. This research explores possible mechanisms of telomere mimic action and seeks to validate a new assay for evaluating telomere binding antagonists and studying the effects of telomere binding...
Natural disturbances and human activities can alter the benthic composition of coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. Reef fishes that associate with particular structures on the sea floor, such as coral heads, may be vulnerable to perturbations of those habitats. The spread of a newly discovered crustose alga (Ramicrusta sp.)...