Biomedical subjects

Benjamin J Ridenhour

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin J Ridenhour.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Nesting fidelity and molecular evidence for natal homing in the freshwater turtle, Graptemys kohnii.

Numerous studies of sea turtle nesting ecology have revealed that females exhibit natal homing, whereby they imprint on the nesting area from which they hatch and subsequently return there to nest as adults. Because freshwater turtles comprise the majority of reptiles known to display environmental sex determination (ESD), the study of natal homing in this group may shed light on recent evolutionary models of sex allocation that are predicated on natal homing in reptiles with ESD. We examined natal homing in Graptemys kohnii, a freshwater turtle with ESD, using mitochondrial sequencing, microsatellite genotyping and mark and recapture of 290 nesting females. Females showed high fidelity to nesting areas, even after being transplanted several kilometres away. A Mantel test revealed significant genetic isolation by distance with respect to nesting locations (r=0.147; p<0.05), suggesting that related females nest in close proximity to one another. The patterns of fidelity and genotype distributions are consistent with homing at a scale that may affect population sex ratios.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Identification of selective sources: partitioning selection based on interactions.

Interspecific interactions are an inescapable reality in nature. The evolution of a species is largely determined by the environment, abiotic or biotic, in which selection occurs. Quantifying the magnitude of selection is crucial to understanding which aspects of the environment are important to the evolution of a species. Such knowledge is particularly important to fields such as conservation biology, which attempts to maintain a suitable environment for the prosperity of a species, or coevolution, where dynamics are determined by the strength of reciprocal selection between species. I present a general method by which selection due to interspecific interactions may be quantified. This technique is based on past quantitative genetic models of selection and can be used with other methodologies that build on these standard models. The approach may be expanded to account for n-species interactions (e.g., a plant with two pollinators). Simulation studies conducted using this method indicate that the magnitude of selection between two species is strongly correlated with the presence of nonrandom interactions.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed2004

Resistance of neonates and field-collected garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.) to tetrodotoxin.

Prior studies of tetrodotoxin (TTX) resistance in garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.) have used laboratory-reared neonates as subjects, but the use of field-caught individuals would reduce cost and effort. We compared estimates of TTX resistance in field-caught and laboratory-born garter snakes. We found that a mass-adjusted dose of TTX administered to field-caught garter snakes produces an estimate of a population 50% dose that is comparable and unbiased with respect to those previously reported using laboratory-born neonates. Dose-response curves estimated for three field-caught populations closely matched the curves estimated from neonate data. The method was tested using populations with levels of TTX resistance ranging between approximately 5-90 mass-adjusted mouse units for their respective 50% doses. The technique of using field-caught snakes as test subjects provides larger genetically independent data sets that are more easily obtained. Our results indicate that changes in mass during development parallel ontogenetic shifts in TTX resistance.

Anesthetics, Local↗