221 results match your criteria: "Louisiana State University AgCenter[Affiliation]"

Densities of insect pests in agricultural communities may be affected by herbicides commonly used for weed management via several routes. First, herbicides may cause direct mortality to insects present both during and immediately following application. Second, herbicides may induce plant defenses that increase resistance to insect herbivores.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: E-cigarettes have emerged as the most commonly used tobacco or nicotine products among youth in the United States (US), and usage with other products (dual use) is not well understood. This study assessed dual use and identified associated factors of usage in school-going youth in the high tobacco burdened region of rural Appalachian Tennessee.

Methods: Two waves of data for the same cohort of students were collected in 2014 (Wave 1) and 2016 (Wave 2).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

GABAergic signaling is the cornerstone for fast synaptic inhibition of neural signaling in arthropods and mammals and is the molecular target for insecticides and pharmaceuticals, respectively. The K-Cl cotransporter (KCC) is the primary mechanism by which mature neurons maintain low intracellular Cl concentration, yet the fundamental physiology, comparative physiology, and toxicological relevance of insect KCC is understudied. Considering this, we employed electrophysiological, genetic, and pharmacological methods to characterize the physiological underpinnings of KCC function to the Drosophila CNS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Birds should select nest sites that minimize predation risk, but understanding the influence of vegetation on nest survival has proven problematic. Specifically, the common practice of measuring vegetation on nest fate date can overestimate its effect on nest survival, simply because vegetation at hatched nests grows for a longer period of time than vegetation at nests that were depredated. Here, we sampled the literature to determine the prevalence of this bias in studies of duck breeding ecology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The unique feeding biology of aphids suggests novel insecticide targets are likely to exist outside of the nervous system. We therefore aimed to directly test the hypothesis that pharmacological inhibition of inward rectifier potassium (Kir) channels would result in salivary gland failure and reduced sap ingestion by the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii.

Results: The Kir inhibitors VU041 and VU590 reduced the length of the salivary sheath in a concentration dependent manner, indicating that the secretory activity of the salivary gland is reduced by Kir inhibition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The majority of commercialized insecticides target the insect nervous system and therefore, neural proteins are well-validated targets for insecticide development. Considering that only a few neural targets are exploited for insecticidal action and the development of insecticide resistance has reduced the efficacy of current insecticidal classes, we sought to test the toxicological potential of the potassium-chloride cotransporter (KCC). In mammals, KCC proteins have seminal roles in shaping GABAergic signaling and inhibitory neurotransmission, thus ion transport through KCC is critical for proper neurotransmission.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Performance of hardened oil well cement (OWC) is largely determined by the rheological properties of the cement slurries. This work was carried out to investigate the effect of water- to-cement ratio (WCR) and cellulose nanoparticles (CNPs), including cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), on rheology performance of OWC-based slurries using a Couette rotational viscometer coupled with rheological models. The yield stress and viscosity of neat OWC slurries had a decreasing trend with the increase of WCRs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Larval Pollen Stress Increases Adult Susceptibility to Clothianidin in Honey Bees.

Insects

January 2019

Department of Entomology, Louisiana State University AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.

Neonicotinoid insecticides have come under scrutiny for their potential role in honey bee declines. Additionally, reduced access to forage in agricultural areas creates the potential for risk interactions with these pesticides in regions critical for honey production. In this study, we sought to determine whether sufficient access to pollen during larval development could mitigate stress associated with oral clothianidin exposure in honey bee adults.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The majority of the currently available insecticides target the nervous system and genetic mutations of invertebrate neural proteins oftentimes yield deleterious consequences, yet the current methods for recording nervous system activity of an individual animal is costly and laborious. This suction electrode preparation of the third-instar larval central nervous system of Drosophila melanogaster, is a tractable system for testing the physiological effects of neuroactive agents, determining the physiological role of various neural pathways to CNS activity, as well as the influence of genetic mutations to neural function. This ex vivo preparation requires only moderate dissecting skill and electrophysiological expertise to generate reproducible recordings of insect neuronal activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mosquitoes use chemical cues to modulate important behaviors such as feeding, mating, and egg laying. The primary chemosensory organs comprising the paired antennae, maxillary palps and labial palps are adorned with porous sensilla that house primary sensory neurons. Dendrites of these neurons provide an interface between the chemical environment and higher order neuronal processing.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

G protein-coupled receptors differentially regulate glycosylation and activity of the inwardly rectifying potassium channel Kir7.1.

J Biol Chem

November 2018

From the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37232; Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. Electronic address:

Kir7.1 is an inwardly rectifying potassium channel with important roles in the regulation of the membrane potential in retinal pigment epithelium, uterine smooth muscle, and hypothalamic neurons. Regulation of G protein-coupled inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) via the G protein βγ subunits has been well characterized.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accessions of cultivated oat (Avena sativa L.) from the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Small Grains Collection in Aberdeen, ID were characterized for adult plant resistance (APR) and seedling resistance to crown rust, caused by Puccinia coronata f. sp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effect of storage temperature and time on the viability of several foodborne bacterial pathogens inoculated into vacuum-packed canned pasteurized cow's milk cheese was investigated. Three popular cheese styles namely, a semi-soft white Monterey Jack style cheese, and two Cheddar cheeses vacuum packaged in mason jars were inoculated with a 3-strain cocktail of each of the following microbes at the mean concentrations listed: Escherichia coli O157:H7 (6.6 log CFU/g), Salmonella spp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Potassium (K) has an important impact on physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, requires high K availability for optimal yield.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anthracnose is one of the most important plant diseases globally, occurring on a wide range of cultivated and wild host species. This study aimed to identify the Colletotrichum species associated with cashew anthracnose in Brazil, determine their phylogenetic relationships and geographical distribution, and provide some insight into the factors that may be influencing community composition. Colletotrichum isolates collected from symptomatic leaves, stems, inflorescences, and fruit of cultivated and wild cashew, across four Brazilian biomes, were identified as Colletotrichum chrysophilum, Colletotrichum fragariae, Colletotrichum fructicola, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides sensu stricto, Colletotrichum queenslandicum, Colletotrichum siamense and Colletotrichum tropicale.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Endocrine and metabolic profile of peripubertal Standardbred colts.

Theriogenology

September 2018

Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA.

The objectives of this study were to determine the concentrations of reproductive and metabolic hormones during the peripubertal period and to assess their relationship with testicular development and body fat deposition. Blood samples were collected from 23 healthy Standardbred colts every four weeks for twelve months. Colts were weighed monthly, and percent of body fat and testicular volume estimated by ultrasound.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The intensive use of intraspecific aflatoxin biocontrol agents (BCAs) poses a risk of developing super-toxigenic strains through recombination, while alternating with interspecific BCAs is safer.
  • More than 50% of rice-associated biocontrol agents (RABs) showed the ability to inhibit multiple aflatoxin strains, with RAB4R being notably effective by lysing fungal hyphal tips.
  • Field trials demonstrated that RAB4R successfully reduced aflatoxin contamination in maize from a highly toxigenic strain, while RAB1, although less effective in growth suppression, substantially inhibited aflatoxin production and could serve as a safe companion BCA due to its lower toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study was conducted to investigate soil quality, Chinese cabbage growth, and NO emission after biochar application in an upland field in South Korea. Each of the barley straw biochar (BC, applied at 10 ton ha), inorganic fertilizer (IF, applied at N-P-K = 320-78-198 kg ha), and BC + IF treatment areas were separated by a control (Cn) treatment area. Soils treated with BC and BC + IF treatments had lower bulk density and higher porosity than those in the Cn treatment areas.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The reduced efficacy of current Anopheline mosquito control methods underscores the need to develop new methods of control that exploit unique target sites and/or utilizes novel deployment methods. Autodissemination methodologies using insect growth regulators (IGRs) is growing in interest and has been shown to be effective at controlling Aedes mosquitoes in semi-field and field environments, yet little information exists for Anopheline mosquitoes. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that female-driven autodissemination of an IGR combined with a new mechanism of action insecticide (Kir channel inhibitor) could be employed to reduce Anopheline populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hydrophobic and thermally-stable cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were synthesized by polycarpolactone diol (PCL diol) grafting via click chemistry strategy. The synthesis was designed as a three-step procedure containing azide-modification of CNCs, alkyne-modification of PCL diol and sequent copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. The structure of azide-modified CNCs and alkyne-modified PCL diol, the structure, hydrophobic ability and thermal stability of click products CNC-PCL were characterized.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Developing a comprehensive and reliable taxonomy for the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides species complex will require adopting data standards on the basis of an understanding of how methodological choices impact morphological evaluations and phylogenetic inference. We explored the impact of methodological choices in a morphological and molecular evaluation of Colletotrichum species associated with banana in Brazil. The choice of alignment filtering algorithm has a significant impact on topological inference and the retention of phylogenetically informative sites.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Reproductive Morphology and Physiological Age Grading of the Female Salvinia Weevil, Calder and Sands.

Int J Insect Sci

January 2018

National Biological Control Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Stoneville, MS, USA.

The morphology of the female Calder and Sands reproductive system is similar to other weevil species being meroistic and telotrophic. The reproductive system is composed of 2 ovaries each containing 2 ovarioles where the follicles mature. A physiological age grading system was developed where the continuum of ovarium development was divided into 2 nulliparous and 3 parous classes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Inwardly Rectifying Potassium (Kir) Channels Represent a Critical Ion Conductance Pathway in the Nervous Systems of Insects.

Sci Rep

January 2018

Louisiana State University AgCenter, Department of Entomology, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.

A complete understanding of the physiological pathways critical for proper function of the insect nervous system is still lacking. The recent development of potent and selective small-molecule modulators of insect inward rectifier potassium (Kir) channels has enabled the interrogation of the physiological role and toxicological potential of Kir channels within various insect tissue systems. Therefore, we aimed to highlight the physiological and functional role of neural Kir channels the central nervous system, muscular system, and neuromuscular system through pharmacological and genetic manipulations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mercury adsorption in the Mississippi River deltaic plain freshwater marsh soil of Louisiana Gulf coastal wetlands.

Chemosphere

March 2018

Divison of Applied Life Science (BK21 Program) & Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52828, South Korea.

Mercury adsorption characteristics of Mississippi River deltaic plain (MRDP) freshwater marsh soil in the Louisiana Gulf coast were evaluated under various conditions. Mercury adsorption was well described by pseudo-second order and Langmuir isotherm models with maximum adsorption capacity of 39.8 mg g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, one of the largest estuaries in the Gulf Coast of USA was investigated for Cu forms and fractionations. Both the water and sediment samples in subsegments of the Lake Pontchartrain basin were collected and Cu forms in dissolved phase and sediment phase were analyzed. The BCR sequential extraction procedure was used to extract Cu in exchangeable, reducible, oxidizable and residual fractions in sediments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF