Freshwater turtles worldwide are declining due to a variety of human caused impacts. The Western Pond Turtle (Emys marmorata) is native to the pacific coast of the North America and is also in decline. Many Western Pond Turtles live in human-modified . . .

In the pursuit of producing cleaner fuels, plant lignocellulose is a source of fermentable sugars that don’t compete with food production. Conversion of plant components, or lignocellulose, into biofuels typically requires hot and acidic pre-treatment . . .

Emiliania huxleyi is a marine haptophyte alga known for its ability to generate large volumes of calcite coccoliths. It also synthesizes a unique suite of neutral lipid (PolyUnsaturated Long Chain Alkenes, Alkenones and Alkenoates, or PULCA), whose bi . . .

Vernal pool habitats have been significantly reduced by conversion to incompatible agriculture and urbanization. As a result, a number of vernal pool dependent species have become rare, including Colusa grass (Neostapfia colusana) and Greene’s tuctori . . .

Microorganisms can live in environments where macroscopic organisms cannot survive, such as in the extremely acidic geothermal Boiling Spring Lake (BSL) in Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA. BSL is an oligotrophic lake with thriving microbial populati . . .

Reproductive isolation is critical to speciation and therefore biodiversity. The immediate goal of such studies is to identify which barriers contribute most to overall reproductive isolation between species, in order to gain a broader understanding o . . .

Diabetes is one of the United States’ worst epidemics; the dangers associated with the disease can be both fatal and varied. The constant presence of high concentrations of glucose and free fatty acids (FFA) becomes a source of stress for cells, which . . .

Hydrophobic polymer lignin provides water proofing and structural integrity to cell wall which help plants adapt to terrestrial environment. Secretory peroxidases are thought to generate monolignol radicals that polymerize to form lignin. In Arabidops . . .

Emiliania huxleyi and some related prymnesiophyte algae produce a novel group of polyunsaturated long-chain C37-39 alkenones, alkenoates, and alkenes as their major neutral lipids, however their biosynthesis pathway is unknown. Like triglycerides, the . . .

Class III plant peroxidases are found in all land plants and lignification, suberization, and pathogen defense are three of the many functions served by these enzymes. The numerous peroxidase functions and the large multigenic families peroxidases are . . .