In this dissertation, I present the results from three studies: (1) a phylogeny of Tenebrionoidea (Coleoptera) inferred from a seven-gene dataset derived from PCR and Sanger sequencing; (2) a phylogeny of Tenebrionidae, the largest family in Tenebrionoidea, inferred from a four-gene dataset also derived from PCR and Sanger sequencing; (3)...
Eukaryotic small RNA (~20-30 nucleotides) are diverse regulatory molecules that repress gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, defend hosts against invading viruses and defend genomes against selfish DNA elements. Small RNA populations are studied by high-throughput sequencing of the total small RNA fraction isolated from cells, however, the...
Experiments were performed to assess regulatory factors governing maize
embryo maturation and vivipary. Both visual and molecular markers of embryo
development were used to examine the roles of the hormones abscisic acid (ABA)
and gibberellins (GAs), as well as water stress in governing transit from early
embryogeny to maturation-phase development....
Protein kinases are an abundant class of enzymes which play important roles in numerous signal transduction systems. Arabidopsis TOUSLED kinase is a serine/threonine kinase which is essential for cell-cell communication within the shoot meristem. TOUSLED is encoded by a single gene in Arabidopsis. Recessive mutants in this gene show mild...
We studied genetic polymorphism and phylogeny using nuclear random amplified polymorphic DNA markers (RAPDs) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) in the three California Closed-Cone Pines: Pinus attenuata Lemm., P. muricata D. Don, and P. radiata D. Don. A total of 343 to 384 trees derived from...
Molecular DNA markers have become widely used in all areas of genetic
research. The objectives of this thesis were to develop polymorphic markers in sunflower
and utilize the markers for genetic and candidate gene analyses. Amplified fragment
length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were used to estimate genetic similarities and
assess the...
Rainbow trout cystatin C cDNA has been isolated from
trout liver. The full-length cystatin cDNA (674 bp)
included the 5'untranslated region and the polyadenylation
signal sequence AATAAA in the 3' region. Translation of
the cDNA defines 132 amino acid residues. Comparison of
the amino acid sequence with those of family...
This thesis summarizes work completed over the previous four years primarily focusing on chloroplast phylogenomic inquiry into the genus Pinus and related Pinaceae outgroups using next-generation sequencing on Illumina platforms. During the time of our work, Illumina sequence read lengths have essentially been limited to 25 to 100 base pairs,...
miRNA-guided cleavage initiates entry of primary transcripts into the trans-acting siRNA (tasiRNA) biogenesis pathway involving RNA-DEPENDENT RNA POLYMERASE6 (RDR6), DICER-LIKE 4 (DCL4), and SUPPRESSOR OF GENE SILENCING3 (SGS3). Arabidopsis thaliana TAS1 and TAS2 families yield tasiRNA that form through miR173- guided initiation cleavage on the 5’ side of the siRNA-generating...