Stander Symposium abstract book - University of Dayton

9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
only shrubs were planted had the lowest percent coverage. The total mean cover and number of native species at Black Oak Park were higher than
invasive species. After honeysuckle removal, we did detect some new invasive species including the aggressive herbaceous plant garlic mustard;
however, that was expected as garlic mustard tends to grow in areas following honeysuckle removal. Following removal, Amur honeysuckle regeneration
in the plots was very low in comparison to other species. Most of the honeysuckle stems were from sprouts from cut stumps, and there
were very few seedlings. From this study we have learned that Amur honeysuckle removal, and replanting native species in the removal area, can
beneficially promote an increase in native plant species.
Regulating Proliferation and Differentiation of Notophthalmus viridescens’ Immortal Cells
in vivo
Presenter(s): Konstantinos Sousounis
Advisor(s): Panagiotis A Tsonis
Biology - Graduate Research
Notophthalmus viridescens, the red-spotted newt, shows astonishing regenerative capabilities. Part of the heart and brain, limbs, tail and eye
tissues like the lens, are some of the organs that can be regenerated after removal. Studies show that newt tissues undergoing regeneration are
resistant to cancer formation. This study was intended to investigate this linkage at the cellular level. Lens regeneration serves as a good model
for this kind of study since lens is regenerated from the dorsal iris pigmented epithelial (IPE) cells and ventral iris can serve as a natural control.
Primary goal was to create an immortalized IPE cell line. Iris pigmented epithelial cells (IPE) were isolated from the eye cup by surgery and
enzymatic treatments. These cultured IPE cells were transfected with pSV3neo, a plasmid vector that expresses the simian virus 40 (SV40) Large
T antigen. This protein is commonly used to immortalize cells that can create tumors. The transfected cells were selected with G418, a selective
marker that pSV3neo has. Comparison between transfected and non-transfected cultured IPE cells revealed that these cells are resistant to the
selective marker G418 in the concentrations that was tested even if they are not transfected. In addition, the IPE cells transdifferentiated to lens
cells but they did not form lentoids as in cultured cells that G418 was not applied. The mechanism behind these initial observations is not known.
Furthermore, using immunocytochemistry, it has been shown that SV40 Large T antigen positive cells are limited (