s (Alphabetical) Kyle Adams Mentor: Aaron Schrey, BIOL Does variation in Toll-Like Receptor Genes Predict Invasion Status on House Sparrows The purpose of this study is to determine if variation in toll-like receptor (TLR) genes can predict the invasion status of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). House sparrows are extremely successful introduced species; once introduced they undergo great ra...

Seaside Sparrows (Ammodramus maritimus) nest at varying population densities, and breeding pairs may occupy either large, all-purpose activity spaces or small nesting territories, foraging in undefended areas separate from the nest site. We determined the prevalence of extra-pair paternity in a large, socially monogamous population of Seaside Sparrows nesting in small, overlapping territories. ...

Inbreeding in wild populations can have devastating effects on fitness, but the genetic causes should not be transmitted across generations. A new study of song sparrows has revealed a parent-offspring resemblance for inbreeding, resulting from population structuring, with important implications for understanding the genetic causes of phenotypic variation in wild populations.

New results from a 20-year study of free-living song sparrows confirm that attractive males contribute more offspring than less attractive males. They also reveal that the offspring of preferred males produce more descendents themselves. Females prefer males with a large song repertoire, which further work shows is a condition-dependent indicator of male quality.

We compared the VecTest WNV antigen assay with standard methods of West Nile virus (WNV) detection in swabs from American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and House Sparrows (Passer domesticus). The VecTest detected WNV more frequently than the plaque assay and was comparable to a TaqMan reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

Petroleum can disrupt endocrine function in humans and wildlife, and interacts in particularly complex ways with the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, responsible for the release of the stress hormones corticosterone and cortisol (hereafter CORT). Ingested petroleum can act in an additive fashion with other stressors to cause increased mortality, but it is not clear exactly why--does p...

Our knowledge of the nature of these infections, sometimes loosely designated as avian malaria, is mainly due to the researches of Danil-The only work upon this subject so far done in America was reported in the papers on the etiology and pathology of h~ematozoan infections in American birds, read by Opie and myself before the Medical Society of the Johns Hopkins are published in full in the pr...

Endogenous circadian rhythms have been described in a wide range of organisms from prokaryotes to man. Although basic circadian mechanisms at the molecular level are genetically fixed, certain properties of circadian rhythms at the organismic level can be modified by environmental conditions and subsequently retained for some time, even in organisms shielded from 24-hr environmental variations....