Wildlife – Page 2 – Research Experiences for Undergraduates in the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease

Phylogenetics of Dracunculus Nematodes in North America

17NovemberAndrea Silletti2021 ProjectsBenchwork, Cleveland, Empirical, Wildlife

Madeline Giner, from the University of Texas at San Antonio, studied the phylogenetics of Dracunculus in the lab of Dr. Christopher Cleveland. The Dracunculus genus contains parasitic nematodes that infect a variety of hosts, including reptiles and mammals. Dracunculus medinensis, the Guinea worm, has gained much attention due to its history of infecting humans. Less

What’s The Buzz Around Hydrogen Peroxide? An analysis of honey bee preference and mortality to differing hydrogen peroxide concentrations

17NovemberAndrea Silletti2021 ProjectsBarlett, Empirical, Wildlife

Carlos Martinez-Mejia from New York University worked with Dr. Lewis Bartlett. Abstract Hydrogen peroxide has proven antimicrobial benefits and is created in honey when honeybees add glucose oxidase. This behavior makes honey bees another self-medicating animal and gives honey the longevity and antiseptic properties that we see. Hydrogen peroxide has been tested for toxicity in

Geographic variation of Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility in the fly Drosophila recens

15AugustAndrea Silletti2016 ProjectsDyer, Empirical, Wildlife

Sydney Keane, a Biology and Chemistry major from East Texas Baptist University, worked with Dr. Kelly Dyer examining the effects of infection on reproduction in Drosophila. Abstract: are bacterial parasites that commonly infect arthropods and nematodes. These parasites have damaging effects on the progeny of those they infect, including cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). CI occurs when

Modeling Chagas disease vector infection prevalence: incorporating life history characteristics and community composition

9OctoberAndrea Silletti2013 ProjectsGottdenker, Quantitative, Wildlife

Authors: Carolina Cabrera, Nicole L. Gottdenker Abstract Multihost vector-borne pathogens play an important role in human and veterinary public health worldwide, and understanding factors that drive their transmission is critical to the development of vector-borne disease prevention and control. Two potentially important drivers of multihost vector-born pathogen transmission are 1) the community composition of reservoir