BioScience 113

Dr. Zachary Silver’s research explores the evolutionary origins of social cognition through an exploration of domestic dogs’ ability to make social decisions, solve novel problems, demonstrate inhibitory control, and interpret human emotions. By comparing social cognition in domestic dogs to that of humans, nonhuman primates, and non-domesticated canid species, Silver’s research seeks to understand the role of artificial selection, social environment, and training history on the roots of sophisticated social cognition and reasoning.

There is a rich history of plant-animal interactions within seagrass meadows. As foundation species, seagrasses host a diverse array of associated fauna. Although the direct positive impact of seagrass habitat structure on faunal diversity and abundance is widely acknowledged, the role of animals on seagrass productivity and resilience range dramatically from positive to negative. Often these plant-animal interactions even involving the same species change along gradients of environmental stress.

Elasmobranch fishes are a subclass of cartilaginous fishes which have a distinct metabolic physiology when compared to other vertebrates. In addition to their different metabolism, elasmobranchs have a unique immune system with reportedly low instances of disease. Elasmobranchs are commonly targeted as sportfish by recreational anglers and caught as bycatch in recreational fisheries. This capture typically involves physical restraint, human handling, and air exposure.

Anthracene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is a widespread environmental pollutant that poses potential risks to human health. Exposure to anthracene can result in various adverse health effects, including skin-related disorders. Photo exposure sufficiently removes the anthracene from the environment but also generates degradation products which can be more toxic. The goal of this study was to assess the change in anthracene dermotoxicity caused by photodegradation and understand the mechanism of this change.

In our age of increasing and compounding drivers of environmental change, understanding not just how Earth’s landscapes are impacted in the immediate aftermath, but also how they regenerate over a longer time scale after specific events is of critical importance. In the Southeastern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, forest regeneration following hurricanes has supported both continent wide conservation corridors, but also local communities who depend on forests for resources and food for millenia.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer. Despite significant clinical achievement in treating RCC especially using Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), the response rates remain limited especially in metastatic disease. To better understand immune alterations associated with ICB resistance, my work has focused on assessing blood biomarkers in renal cancer patients classified as responders or non-responders to first line immunotherapy.

Coastal environments represent hotspots not only of biodiversity and ecosystem services, but human development and exploitation. This study establishes a baseline describing benthic organisms present along the western coast of Placentia Bay, a declared Ecologically and Biologically Significant Area (EBSA) of the Island of Newfoundland, Canada. Concurrently, this research investigates the methodology behind habitat mapping – using physical seafloor characteristics to predict the distribution of a target organism or group – and discusses ways it can be improved.

Birds see and produce an astonishing diversity of colors that span the human visible and ultraviolet spectrums. These colors are produced by numerous mechanisms and perceived by birds differently depending on their visual system sensitivity. Despite the wealth of knowledge on bird coloration and vision, few large-scale comparative studies link the evolution of the avian visual system and the colors birds produce. Using genomic data, 3D models of bird museum specimens, and a resolved phylogeny of all bird species we examine how visual system sensitivity evolves across the bird tree of life.

Small molecule modulation of splicing is a therapeutic modality to disrupt or restore expression of proteins. Although high throughput screening efforts can readily identify splice modulating compounds, optimizing them for splice site specific activity remains a key challenge. Here we present how we utilize RNA-mediated oligonucleotide annealing, selection, and ligation (RASLseq) to examine hundreds of exon junctions simultaneously and measure both on-target activity and specificity for thousands of conditions.

Brown recluse spiders are famous for bites that cause necrotic lesions. Our research advances knowledge about the evolutionary history of brown recluse and their relatives (biogeography) and uses that as a framework to understand where the venom toxins that cause lesions came from and how they have evolved new functions that make them toxic. I will answer the questions of how the brown recluse got to North America, when the venom toxin that causes necrosis originated in this lineage, and what we're learning about how that venom toxin affects insect prey.