CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 0rganized by start time / unit / department CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER Empirical Research Presentations in Economics School of Business Administration: Economics and Finance Oral Presentation - Capstone Project PRESENTERS Heather Ann Axton, Najm Olawale Babatunde, Luke Anthony Bir, Ian Joseph Blair, Mitchell Thomas Bloemer, Xavier Bonfiglio, Noah Duane Cable, Michael Thomas Callahan, Summer L Camper, Patrick Eugene Canning, Cameron Allen Cerbus, Xiangyun Chen, Andrew Benner Dewees, Michael Scott Dobak, Matthew Paul Forte, Jack F Glending, Dominick T Golubiewski, Trevor Austin Gonzalez, David William Graf, Kayla P Haberstich, Ryan J Harpst, Evan Mathew Heeter, Jason Henry Hessel, Connor Christopher Larkin, Despina Lawandi, Roy Daniel Lawrence, Geng Li, Wesley Lawrence Luvisi, Nathan Joseph Machel, Christopher Warren Mack, Samuel Jacob Mancini, Clare M Manion, Patrick Nathan Martinette, Tony Joseph Mazza, John Paul McNamara, Emily Anne Michl, Eric J Nascone, Griffin Foster O’Gara, Julie Noelle Pochodylo, Tom Scott Pollock, Vidyaarthi Pugalenthi, Reed E Rayburg, Zachary William Reid, Robert Paul Richardson, Naimeh Osama Saleh, Nicholas Anthony Salerno, Wyatt James Satre, Mitchell V Schleyer, Sarah Elizabeth Sepanski, Michael Robert Sernus, Joshua William Simpson, Alex Marie Stahanczyk, Benjamin Daniel Steinhart, Nathan Peter Stemen, Caroline Grace Stockglausner, Jacob G Strippy, Benjamin D Vasunia, Lucas James Wahlen, Changhan Wang, Jake Austin Warnica, Darian A Washington, Evan J Willmann, Yifei Wu, Yuhui Wu, Bennett Alexander Zynn ADVISORS Nancy L Haskell LOCATION, TIME Miriam Hall 109, 8:30-5:30 Four years of coursework culminate in a written and oral presentation of an empirical research project during the senior capstone course. Students apply economic theory and econometric techniques to analyze data in order to answer an original research question. Revealing when, how, and how often a pigmentation gene network evolved to be sexually dimorphic in a fruit fly subgenus College of Arts and Sciences: Biology Poster - Graduate Research PRESENTERS Abbey Marie Groszkiewicz, Jesse Taylor Hughes ADVISORS Tom M Williams LOCATION, TIME RecPlex Main Gym, 9:00-10:15 Since the origin of the 36 recognized animal phyla, evolution can be largely summarized as the diversification of characteristics among these original body plans. As animal characteristics are the products of development, a key challenge for contemporary research is to reveal the ways in which development evolves through changes in the use of genes within a gene regulatory network. One ideal trait for deep mechanistic study is the coloration patterns observed on the abdominal tergites of fruit fly species from the Sophophora subgenus. Prior research has supported a scenario where elaborate melanic pigmentation limited to the male abdomen evolved once within this clade through the evolution of a sexually dimorphic pattern of expression for the bric-à- brac transcription factor genes. My research seeks to confirm or revise this scenario by bringing attention to the distribution of species with elaborate male pigmentation among the diverse Sophophora species groups and interrogating the patterns of bric-à- brac expression during the development and coloration of abdominal tergites. Using RNA-interference to Identify the Genetic Toolkit for a Fruit Fly Morphological Trait College of Arts and Sciences: Biology Poster - Honors Thesis PRESENTERS Abbey Marie Groszkiewicz, Jesse Taylor Hughes ADVISORS Tom M Williams LOCATION, TIME RecPlex Main Gym, 9:00-10:15 Metazoan animal morphological traits result from the combined inputs of hundreds or more genes that comprise gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Each GRN utilizes various genes from the genetic toolkit of transcription factor and signaling pathway genes to control complex patterns of gene expression. However, for few traits, if any, has the full repertoire of toolkit genes been charac- terized for its GRN. Thus, how traits are built by regulated gene expression remains poorly understood. For my thesis, I am investi- gating the genetic toolkit that makes a male-specific pigmentation for the fruit fly speciesDrosophila melanogaster. Using RNA- interference, I will reduce the expression of ~190 transcription factor and ~21 signaling pathway genes to find those necessary for this trait by surveying for deviant pigmentation phenotypes. The results will provide a greater understanding of how a GRN is able to direct the formation of a well formed trait. Molecular Modeling of Organic Matrix Proteins in Oysters College of Arts and Sciences: Biology Poster - Independent Research PRESENTERS Anna Kathleen Benton ADVISORS Karolyn M Hansen LOCATION, TIME RecPlex Main Gym, 9:00-10:15 158 CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER Three organic matrix proteins, Pearlin, Prismalin, and Shematrin, from the shell of the oyster Pinctada fucata have been isolated, characterized, and the sequences reported in the literature. These organic matrix proteins are known to interact with one another and with the mineral layers in assembly of the shell, but how the interaction occurs is unknown. This project focuses on molecular modeling of the proteins to discover how this interaction occurs by using the 3D modeling program Chem3D® (PerkinElmer). The molecular modeling program initially displays each protein in the least sterically-hindered conformation. Next, post-translational modifications were made to model the amino acid crosslinking that must occur between the proteins; the introduced post-transla- tional modification is addition of a hydroxyl group to Tyrosine residues to form L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-Dopa) residues. The modifications of changing the tyrosines to L-Dopa were made to the protein sequence at random to identify any combination of alterations that would be most beneficial for the interaction between the organic matrix proteins and the mineral. After an accept- able conformation was found, the protein was replicated in the modeling program. The proteins were then rearranged to determine the most favorable electrostatic arrangement, one with polar regions of the protein interacting with one another. This modeling approach will be used in the future for proteins isolated and characterized from our experimental organism, Crassostrea virginica, the eastern oyster. Determining the Role of Membrane Fatty Acid Composition in Antibiotic Resistance College of Arts and Sciences: Biology Poster - Honors Thesis PRESENTERS Andrew J Deak ADVISORS Yvonne Y Sun LOCATION, TIME RecPlex Main Gym, 9:00-10:15 Bacterial infections that can no longer be treated by antibiotics because of bacterial mutations cause many infections and deaths each year. My research conducted aims to study how membrane fatty acid composition can affect bacterial susceptibility to antibiot- ics. Listeria monocytogenes, a gram-positive facultative anaerobe, is the bacterium that I am testing. Listeria has 80-90% branched- chain fatty acids (BCFAs) which allow membrane fluidity and sufficient protection against invaders. When Listeria is grown in the presence of butyrate, the BCFAs become straight-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and make the once fluid membrane more rigid. We be- lieve that this allows for easier antibiotic penetration of the phospholipid bilayer which lets the antibiotics affect cellular processes. By changing concentrations of butyrate I can therefore determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics for Listeria with different membrane fatty acid compositions. Moreover, as growth is a key factor in bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics. I also measure oxygen consumption rate in response to butyrate. Higher oxygen consumption rate is indicative of higher bacterial activity. Because oxygen consumption is carried out by protein complexes on the membrane, measuring oxygen consumption rate also reveal the effects of butyrate on cell membrane functionality. Characterization of the Glycosylation of Aquaglyceroporin HC-3 in Erythrocytes from the Freeze Tolerant Anuran, Dryophytes chrysoscelis College of Arts and Sciences: Biology Poster - Honors Thesis PRESENTERS Dante Laurenti Pezzutti ADDITIONAL AUTHORS James Frisbie, David Goldstein (Wright State University) ADVISORS Carissa M Krane LOCATION, TIME RecPlex Main Gym, 9:00-10:15 Cope’s gray treefrog, Dryophytes chrysoscelis, is a freeze-tolerant anuran that uses glycerol as a cryoprotectant. In erythrocytes of D. chrysoscelis, transmembrane glycerol flux is likely facilitated through the aquaglyceroporin, HC-3. Previous research demon- strated that erythrocytes from cold-acclimated treefrogs up-regulate HC-3 protein expression, membrane localization, and gly- cosylation. Thus, we hypothesize that anticipatory glycerol accumulation observed in cold-acclimated treefrogs contributes to enhanced post-translational modification of HC-3 via N-linked and O-linked glycosylation, and that HC-3 glycosylation is important in subcellular trafficking of HC-3 to the membrane. Densitometric analyses of immunoblots specific for HC-3 showed a 3.5-fold and 1.9-fold average increase in glycosylated HC-3 from RBCs cultured with the addition of glycerol (CCCM+G) as compared to Freshly Isolated RBCs (FI) and RBCs cultured in CCCM alone, respectively. Western blots of RBC proteins treated with PNGase F resulted in a 1.3-fold average decrease in glycosylated HC-3 compared to control proteins. However, protein treatment with O-Glycosidase and Neuraminidase did not change the abundance of glycosylated HC-3. Additional results were collected