2006 Posters

Alejandro Algarin
Effect of Uncoupling Agent, CCCP on Mitochondrial Metabolism and Lifespan of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Advisor/Professor:  Paul A. Kirchman

Aging can be attributed to production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).  Certain proteins, such as uncoupling agents that lower mitochondrial membrane potential, can effectively reduce ROS damage, thereby increasing lifespan.  A major site of ATP and ROS production is the mitochondrion. Mitochondria have their own genome, which is essential for proper ATP production. Reactive oxygen species accumulate, as a byproduct of ATP production, resulting in mitochondrial DNA damage.  We observed less rapid growth and cell proliferation when an uncoupling agent, CCCP, was added to yeast cells grown in liquid media.  However, it was found that the first generation of budding cells on solid media with CCCP grew faster than the control group.  Possible reasons for this difference in budding rate will be discussed. 

Sona Bhatti   
Construction of Yeast Strain to Analyze the Effects of Telomerase Export to the Mitochondria.    
Advisor/Professor:  Dr. Paul Kirchman   

Telomeres, the physical ends of chromosomal DNA, are shortened during cell replication. Over many divisions, telomeres may become too short and lead to unstable DNA or cell death. Telomerase, an enzyme found in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells, adds new copies of the telomeric repeat sequence to the ends of existing DNA. Previous studies have shown that human telomerase contains an N-terminal mitochondrial targeting sequence. Additionally, when under oxidative stress, telomerase is translocated into the cytoplasm and subsequently to the mitochondria. Upon introduction into the mitochondria, telomerase stimulates mutations. Yeast telomerase does not have the mitochondrial targeting sequence. This study aims to construct a plasmid containing the yeast gene for telomerase fused to a mitochondrial targeting sequence. Since yeast is a good system for assaying mutations in the mitochondrial DNA, the plasmid will be transformed into yeast cells. Finally, mutational effects will be observed and reported.

Carmen Blubaugh, James Capp, Sarah Fannin, Carrie Goethel, Maureen Krupski, Cara Piccirillo
The ‘Incidental Taking’ of Gopher Tortoises in Florida:  An Overview of Permit Statistics, Stakeholders, and Ethical Concerns
Advisor/Professor:  Dr. William O'Brien

Gopher tortoise habitat is rapidly dwindling mainly due to urban growth. As a result, gopher tortoises are currently listed as a Species of Special Concern in Florida by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). Developers seeking to build on land occupied by tortoises have legal options that include avoiding construction in areas of the site where burrows are located, applying for a tortoise relocation permit, or for an “incidental take” permit. The latter allows the killing of tortoises on site in exchange for a mitigation fee paid to the state. Such tortoises are often “entombed” in their burrows beneath construction sites where they die a slow death.  Incidental take raises contentious ethical issues, sparking intense dialogue among stakeholders. Our poster presents these issues, highlighting statistics on incidental take permits issued by the FWC. Our larger project examines varied perspectives on incidental take policy.

Trinity Busch
Faces of Katrina
Advisor/Professor:  Dr. Christopher B. Strain

Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh named storm, fifth hurricane, third major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, and it was also the costliest and one of the deadliest storms in American history.  From a weather forecaster’s perspective, Katrina formed over the Bahamas, traveled west across South Florida, intensified in the Gulf, and made landfall over Louisiana.  From a news anchor’s standpoint, Katrina was the “Big One” for the Big Easy, causing massive evacuation, highway standstill, broken levees, unprecedented flooding, disastrous recovery efforts, looting, fires, an uncounted number of deaths, and a Superdome nightmare.  The world saw Katrina through these facts and statistics but the world missed one crucial perspective; the stories of those who were face to face with the “one we feared.” These accounts demonstrate the significance oral history plays in understanding the past.

Heather Marchetti, Glen Turner, Robert McCurdy, Graham Whitaker, Austin Boyle, Walter Jean Vertus, Alex Algarin, Laura Owens, Josh Tabor, and Maria Rodriguez
The Analysis of the Chemical Composition of Latent Fingerprints by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Advisor/Professor:    Dr. Eugene Smith

In past forensic investigations, latent fingerprint analysis consisted of using the array of ridges in a person’s fingerprint to successfully identify the individual. This method is viable because each person’s fingerprint is unique due to the fact that no two ridge arrangements are exactly the same. However, problems arose because fingerprints at crime scenes are sometimes smeared or incomplete. In cases where these problems exist, the analysis of the ridges is an impractical method of identification. Researchers made advancements in the techniques of latent fingerprint analysis, with the resources from the ever progressing technology industry, to account for these problems. One such development includes using infrared (IR) microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to establish the chemical composition of a latent fingerprint. With this development, it is plausible that the differences in the chemical makeup of fingerprints can establish things such as age and gender and thus reduce a suspect group.

Robert McCurdy
Bioprospecting for Bioactive Compounds in the Venom of Crematogaster Ants
Advisor/Professor: Dr. Jim Wetterer

Bioprospecting, the search for useful compounds in nature, has led to the discovery of many important pharmaceuticals.  This study involves prospecting for bioactive compounds in a relatively unstudied source, the venom of ants in the genus Chrematogaster.  The focus will be on alkaloids, a class of compounds that includes many important drugs, e.g., quinine, codeine and morphine.  The whole colonies are collected for the venom assays, the bioactivities are determined by published procedures. The structures of any relevant bioactive compounds are found using NMR and GC-MS techniques.

Karen Ramm and Rachel Starkings
Age Differences in the Role of Unconscious Transference in Eyewitness Testimony
Advisor/Professor:  Dr. Julie Earles and Dr. Alan Kersten

In unconscious transference, participants inadvertently combine an actor and action from two separate events. This binding error is especially problematic in eyewitness testimony when a person familiar to the victim is falsely connected to the crime. To examine how unconscious transference is affected by the proximity of two events, 44 younger and 44 older adults viewed brief videos of actors performing simple actions. One week later the participants viewed similar videos containing old items, near and far conjunction items, and new items. Conjunction items consisted of a novel combination of actors and actions from encoding. When participants were asked to determine, for each video, whether the actor and action was the same pair from encoding, younger adults more accurately rejected conjunction items than older adults. Both groups were more likely to reject novel combinations if the actor and action were in adjacent videos at encoding that if they were separated.

Graham Whitaker
Analysis of the pH-dependent Redox Mechanism of Flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)
Advisor Eugene Smith

Flavin adenine dinucleotide is a vital coenzyme present in all walks of life.  FAD serves as two electron acceptor and gets reduced to FADH2.  This reduction mechanism has not been fully elucidated, but numerous theoretical papers have been published that suggest a two electron/two proton process.  In contrast, this spectroelectrochemical study reveals that there is an additional (third) hydrogen involved in the mechanism.  Based on our theoretical model, it appears that this reaction proceeds via a simultaneous two electron transfer step (n=2), followed by a simultaneous two proton transfer step, and we have determined approximate values of the associated acid dissociation constants and reduction potentials.  This simultaneous two proton transfer mechanism has been previously unreported in the literature.