Habitat maps derived from remotely sensed data are strong predictors of wildlife distributions, outperforming traditional on the ground vegetation structure surveys. Texas Parks and Wildlife created a statewide habitat map in 2014 featuring 398 vegetation classes to 10-meter resolution. The Great Trinity Forest is the largest urban forest in the United States, with 3,000 continuous hectares within the city of Dallas. As part of our wider study of the forest’s wildlife, we edited Texas Parks and Wildlife’s habitat to more accurately and meaningfully reflect habitat distinctions in the Great Trinity Forest. First we adjusted the locations and boundaries of waterways to reflect changes in their location over the past four years. Then we reclassified the bottomland hardwood forest habitat type (BHF) to reflect different succession stages of forest growth. Using LIDAR and aerial images we calculated canopy heights and reclassified BHF using those heights as primary BHF, secondary BHF, or early successional bottomlands.

Methylmercury (MeHg) is an environmental contaminant that can have adverse effects on wildlife. Because inorganic Hg is converted to MeHg primarily in aquatic ecosystems, studies of MeHg contamination of food webs have historically focused on aquatic organisms. However, recent studies have found that emergent aquatic insects (e.g. mayflies and dragonflies) can transport MeHg to terrestrial predators like songbirds, and this could have implications for species in decline such as Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). Red-winged blackbirds are odonate (dragonflies and damselflies) predators, and odonates can make up 50 – 90% of a Red-winged blackbird’s diet during the breeding season. Red-winged blackbirds have declined throughout their range by 30% over the last 50 years. Their decline is due in part to loss of wetland habitat, but the consumption of MeHg contaminated prey items could also be having an effect. Several studies have reported MeHg contamination of Red-winged blackbirds, and yet, the potential effect of diet on MeHg contamination in Red-winged blackbirds has not been studied. I collected data on blood MeHg level of Red-winged blackbird nestlings and the emergence rate of odonates during the summer of 2017 at the Eagle Mountain Hatchery Experimental Pond Facility in Tarrant County, Texas. I used the ArcGIS Space Time Cube to identify spatiotemporal hot spots of nestling MeHg level and odonate emergence, and I used linear regression models to see how well proximity to odonate emergence hotspots predicted nestling MeHg hotspots.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death and will directly affect approximately 40% of the people in the United States over the course of their life. Chemotherapy has been shown to be an effective therapeutic strategy, but it lacks specificity, resulting in a multitude of negative side effects. Targeted therapies such as Herceptin, Iressa, and Nivolumab have shown increased effectiveness against cancer by attacking specific molecules in the target cell. For example, Herceptin inhibits the HER2 protein, which is overproduced in some breast cancer cells, and stops cell division. Biotin is an innate coenzyme for carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism. Certain cancer types overexpress biotin transporters on the surface of each cancer cell in order to increase biotin absorption necessary for metabolic processes. Furthermore, the intracellular environment in cancer cells is more reducing compared to non-cancer cells due to increased metabolism. Ferrocene is an iron-based organometallic molecule that has been shown to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the reducing environment of cancer cells. Given that certain cancer cells absorb biotin with a higher efficiency, we hypothesize that linking biotin to ferrocene will increase the efficiency of ferrocene entering the cell and result in selective cancer cell death. Therefore, we have produced a library of biotin-ferrocene conjugates to selectively target cancer cell lines that over express biotin receptor sites. Experiments were conducted utilizing ferrocene and a variety of ferrocene-biotin conjugates (C1, C2, 2) in both cancer (MCF-7) and noncancer (HEK 293) cell lines in order to compare the relative toxicity between compounds.

Many rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) populations exhibit partial migration, where resident and migrant individuals coexist in a single population. Due to anthropogenic, environmental, and population-specific factors, migratory individuals have been decreasing in frequency across the continental United States. Biologically, whether an individual will migrate is determined by both genetic and environmental factors. Although migration in many salmonids is known to be highly heritable, the environment plays an overriding role. Previous studies investigating the genetic basis of migration have failed to control for environmental variance and, consequently, the genes and regions of the genome underlying the development of the migratory phenotype remain unknown. We used data from a common garden experiment to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with migration in the F1 generation of a resident-by-resident and a migrant-by-migrant cross. We genotyped 192 F1 individuals on an Affymetrix SNP chip at 57,501 known polymorphic locations throughout the genome. We identified 5002 significant SNPs in the migrant-by-migrant family and 429 significant SNPs in the resident-by-resident family, using an FDR-corrected p-value of 0.01. For the migrant cross, we located significant markers associated with 28 genes whose functions are connected to pathways previously hypothesized to be important in migration. Five genes on three chromosomes were associated with migration in both familial crosses, suggesting that these regions are important in determining life history regardless of familial origin in this population. These data will be further used to develop a model to predict life history in individuals that are yet to make that determination. Understanding the genetic factors involved in the decision to migrate, through the identification of polymorphisms associated with migration, will assist fisheries managers in restoring and maintaining migratory rainbow trout populations.

The Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) has always been believed to be an ant specialist, especially on harvester ants. However, a population of horned lizards in south Texas seem to have a more diverse diet consisting of other insects and arachnids. The goal of this project is to build a DNA library of order Coleoptera (beetles) that are preyed upon by these horned lizards. This DNA library will be compared to DNA extracted from horned lizard scat so that we can identify which species of beetles these lizards are eating. For this process, I isolated DNA from 244 beetles collected in pit fall traps from Kenedy and Karnes City, amplified the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene, and sequenced it. I compared the processed sequences to those available on GenBank and BOLD (Barcode of Life Database) to identify the species of beetle.