Publications by authors named "Anne Kirk"

Fusarium head blight, caused by , continues to be one of the most important and devastating fungal diseases on cereal grains including wheat, barley, and oat crops. produces toxic secondary metabolites that include trichothecene type A and type B mycotoxins. There are many variants of these toxins that are produced, and in the early 2010s, a novel type A trichothecene mycotoxin known as 3ANX (7-α hydroxy,15-deacetylcalonectrin) and its deacetylated product NX (7-α hydroxy, 3,15-dideacetylcalonectrin) were identified in Minnesota, USA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ewing's sarcoma, a malignant bone tumor of children and young adults, is a member of the small-round-blue-cell tumor family. Ewing's sarcoma family tumors (ESFTs), which include peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs), are characterized by chromosomal translocations that generate fusions between the EWS gene and ETS-family transcription factors, most commonly FLI1. The EWS-FLI1 fusion oncoprotein represents an attractive therapeutic target for treatment of Ewing's sarcoma.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

1. The Trivers-Willard model of optimal sex ratios predicts that in polygynous species mothers in better condition should produce more male than female offspring. However, empirical support for this hypothesis in mammals and especially ungulates has been equivocal.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Here, we characterized behavioral abnormalities induced by prolonged social isolation in adult rodents. Social isolation induced both anxiety- and anhedonia-like symptoms and decreased cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) activity in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh). All of these abnormalities were reversed by chronic, but not acute, antidepressant treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The transcription factor deltaFosB (DeltaFosB), induced in nucleus accumbens (NAc) by chronic exposure to drugs of abuse, has been shown to mediate sensitized responses to these drugs. However, less is known about a role for DeltaFosB in regulating responses to natural rewards. Here, we demonstrate that two powerful natural reward behaviors, sucrose drinking and sexual behavior, increase levels of DeltaFosB in the NAc.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Weather variables can influence life-history traits of ungulates. In this study, we assessed the suitability of regional climate indices including the NAO and two measures of local climate-the maximal extent of ice on the Baltic Sea (MIE) and absolute values of its annual deviations from the multi-year mean (VMIE)-to examine how density-independent processes influence moose body size and fecundity. We predicted that both winter severity (large values of MIE) and variability (large values of VMIE) depress moose traits (e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF