Trivigno, Catherine

Courtship is the series of behaviors that fly pairs engage in before potentially mating. These behaviors play a huge role in the mating success between fly pairs and certain variables such as the courtship index is used to measure this relationship. This study will analyze the unblinded results of distinct fly pairs from different strains , specifically the Canton S. and Dahomey strains, after being isolated to test their mating success. The statistical data of the fly pairs’ courting and mating behaviors, which has been output from the Jupyter Python program, will be analyzed. Furthermore, the supporting tables and graph will be used to distinguish between significant differences of the two strains, and the possible reasons for these differences will be further discussed in the final section.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, chytrid fungi (Chytridiomycota) species known for their lethality in amphibians by chytridiomycosis, were tested for in crayfish (Procambarus alleni and Procambarus fallax) and eastern grass shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus). From 2019 to 2020, these crustaceans were gathered from 21 sites in southeastern Florida and were frozen, dissected, and swabbed with sterile swabs. Samples from the same site were pooled together and sent to the San Diego Zoo Amphibian Lab for TaqMan PCR to verify the presence of chytrid fungi. Excluding the positive control, the results from the TaqMan PCR returned negative for the presence of either chytrid fungi species. This could indicate that these chytrid fungi are not yet present at the sites tested, or that these crayfish and shrimp species do not act as vectors for chytrid fungus in Southeast Florida. Alternatively, chytrid infection may be seasonal in Southeast Florida.

Researchers are currently designing RNAs for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and an understanding of the factors that affect stability of these RNAs could inform the design of new RNA constructs. This project involved the use of in silico experiments to investigate the effects of different nucleotide substitutions on the stability of RNAs using EteRNA, a publicly available, online computer modeling software developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford Universities to study RNA folding. It was determined that while many types of single nucleotide substitutions can alter the stability of secondary structures, such as loops, the stability of adjacent structures was not affected.