College of Basic and Applied Sciences

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The College of Basic and Applied Sciences (CBAS) is a diverse set of departments that includes the basic sciences (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics), Mathematics, and Computer Science as well as Aerospace, Agriculture, Concrete Industry Management, Engineering Technology, and Military Science. We believe that science holds the hope of our country's continued success and are working hard to improve K-12 education in the basic and applied sciences. We are excited you have taken time to visit our site!

The largest of the university's five undergraduate colleges in terms of the overall number of declared majors, the college has 4000+ undergraduate, over 300 master's, 90 doctoral students. This college offers 16 undergraduate major programs, including 56 different emphasis areas. Seven of the ten departments within the college offer programs leading to a master's degree. The college also offers three interdisciplinary Ph.D. degrees in the areas of Computational Science, Molecular Biosciences, and Mathematics and Science Education.

Our talented faculty work one-on-one with a large number of majors, teach many general education classes in mathematics and the sciences, provide service to the professional community, and engage in basic and applied research. The college currently has 195 full-time faculty.

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  • Item
    Good vs complementary genes for parasite resistance and the evolution of mate choice
    ( 2004-11-19) Howard, R Stephen ; Lively, Curtis M
    Background: Female mate choice may be adaptive when males exhibit heritable genetic variation at loci encoding resistance to infectious disease. The Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis predicts that females should assess the genetic quality of males by monitoring traits that indicate health and vigor (condition-dependent choice, or CD). Alternatively, some females may employ a more direct method of screening and select mates based on the dissimilarity of alleles at the major histocompatibility loci (we refer to this as opposites-attract, or OA). Empirical studies suggest that both forms of mate choice exist, but little is known about the potential for natural selection to shape the two strategies in nature.
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    A plastome primer set for comprehensive quantitative real time RT-PCR analysis of Zea mays: a starter primer set for other Poaceae species
    ( 2008-06-02) Sharpe, Richard M ; Dunn, Sade N ; Cahoon, A Bruce
    Background: Quantitative Real Time RT-PCR (q2(RT)PCR) is a maturing technique which gives researchers the ability to quantify and compare very small amounts of nucleic acids. Primer design and optimization is an essential yet time consuming aspect of using q2(RT)PCR. In this paper we describe the design and empirical optimization of primers to amplify and quantify plastid RNAs from Zea mays that are robust enough to use with other closely related species.
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    Strategy for Adapting Wine Yeasts for Bioethanol Production
    ( 2009-01-22) Ooi, Beng Guat ; Lankford, Kevin R.
    The Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast strains 71B-1122 and K1-V1116 were used to derive strains that could tolerate and produce higher ethanol yields. Respiratory-deficient mutants resistant to 500 µg/mL lycorine were isolated. Two mutants, 71B-1122 YEBr L3 and K1-V1116 YEBr L4, were shown to achieve about 10% and 18% improvement in their glucose-to-ethanol conversion efficiency compared to their respective parent strains. The K1-V1116 YEBr L4 in particular can tolerate an ethanol yield of 18.8 ± 0.8% at 3.5 weeks of fermentation and continued to consume most of the sugar until less than 1% glucose was left.
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    Disinfection of football protective equipment using chlorine dioxide produced by the ICA TriNova system
    ( 2009-09-08) Newsome, Anthony L ; DuBois, John D ; Tenney, Joel D
    Backround: Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks have occurred in individuals engaged in athletic activities such as wrestling and football. Potential disease reduction interventions include the reduction or elimination of bacteria on common use items such as equipment. Chlorine dioxide has a long history of use as a disinfectant. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the ability of novel portable chlorine dioxide generation devices to eliminate bacteria contamination of helmets and pads used by individuals engaged in football.
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    Hybrid speciation in Heliconius butterflies? A review and critique of the evidence
    ( 2010-11-15) Brower, Andrew V. Z.
    The evidence supporting the recent hypothesis of a homoploid hybrid origin for the butterfly species Heliconius heurippa is evaluated. Data from selective breeding experiments, mate-choice studies, and a wide variety of DNA markers are reviewed, and an alternative hypothesis for the origin of the species and its close relatives is proposed. A scenario of occasional red wing-pattern mutations in peripheral populations of Heliconius cydno with subsequent adaptive convergence towards sympatric mimicry rings involving H. melpomene and H. erato is offered as an alternative to the HHS hypothesis. Recent twists of this tale are addressed in a postscript.
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    Overcoming the Recalcitrance for the Conversion of Kenaf Pulp to Glucose via Microwave-Assisted Pre-Treatment Processes
    ( 2011-02-21) Ooi, Beng Guat ; Rambo, Ashley L. ; Hurtado, Miguel A.
    This study evaluates the pre-treatment of cellulose from kenaf plant to yield sugar precursors for the production of ethanol or butanol for use as biofuel additives. In order to convert the crystalline cellulosic form to the amorphous form that can undergo enzymatic hydrolysis of the glycosidic bond to yield sugars, kenaf pulp samples were subjected to two different pre-treatment processes. In the acid pre-treatment, the pulp samples were treated with 37.5% hydrochloric acid in the presence of FeCl3 at 50 °C or 90 °C whereas in the alkaline method, the pulp samples were treated with 25% sodium hydroxide at room temperature and with 2% or 5% sodium hydroxide at 50 °C. Microwave-assisted NaOH-treatment of the cellulose was also investigated and demonstrated to be capable of producing high glucose yield without adverse environmental impact by circumventing the use of large amounts of concentrated acids i.e., 83-85% phosphoric acid employed in most digestion processes. The treated samples were digested with the cellulase enzyme from Trichoderma reesei. The amount of glucose produced was quantified using the Quantichrom glucose bioassay for assessing the efficiency of glucose production for each of the treatment processes. The microwave-assisted alkaline pre-treatment processes conducted at 50 °C were found to be the most effective in the conversion of the crystalline cellulose to the amorphous form based on the significantly higher yields of sugar produced by enzymatic hydrolysis compared to the untreated sample.
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    Seed germination and seedling development ecology in world-wide populations of a circumboreal Tertiary relict
    ( 2012-03-04) Walck, Jeffrey L. ; Karlsson, Laila M. ; Milberg, Per ; Hidayati, Siti N. ; Kondo, Tetsuya
    Background and aims: Temperate forests are disjunct in the Northern Hemisphere, having become fragmented from the earlier widespread (Tertiary) boreotropical forest. We asked What are the contemporary patterns of population variation in ecological traits of a Tertiary relict in a macroecological context?. This issue underpins our understanding of variation in populations occurring in the same biome but on different continents.
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    Detection of hydrogen using graphene
    ( 2012-03-23) Ehemann, Robert C ; Krstić, Predrag S ; Dadras, Jonny ; Kent, Paul RC ; Jakowski, Jacek
    Irradiation dynamics of a single graphene sheet bombarded by hydrogen atoms is studied in the incident energy range of 0.1 to 200 eV. Results for reflection, transmission, and adsorption probabilities, as well as effects of a single adsorbed atom to the electronic properties of graphene, are obtained by the quantum-classical Monte Carlo molecular dynamics within a self-consistent-charge-density functional tight binding formalism We compare these results with those, distinctly different, obtained by the classical molecular dynamics.
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    Simultaneous utilization of glucose, xylose and arabinose in the presence of acetate by a consortium of Escherichia coli strains
    ( 2012-06-07) Xia, Tian ; Eiteman, Mark A ; Altman, Elliot
    Background: The efficient microbial utilization of lignocellulosic hydrolysates has remained challenging because this material is composed of multiple sugars and also contains growth inhibitors such as acetic acid (acetate). Using an engineered consortium of strains derived from Escherichia coli C and a synthetic medium containing acetate, glucose, xylose and arabinose, we report on both the microbial removal of acetate and the subsequent simultaneous utilization of the sugars.
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    Direct laser trapping for measuring the behavior of transfused erythrocytes in a sickle cell anemia patient
    ( 2012-08-16) Pellizzaro, Aline ; Welker, Gabriel ; Scott, David ; Solomon, Rance ; Cooper, James ; Farone, Anthony ; Farone, Mary ; Mushi, Robert S. ; Aguinaga, Maria del Pilar ; Erenso, Daniel
    Using a laser trap, we have studied the properties of erythrocytes from a sickle cell anemia patient (SCA) after receiving an intravenous blood transfusion, and a normal adult individual carrying normal adult hemoglobin. The hemoglobin type and quantitation assessment was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We conducted an analysis of the size distributions of the cells. By targeting those erythrocytes in the overlapping regions of size distributions, we have investigated their properties when the cells are trapped and released. The efficacy of the transfusion treatment is also studied by comparing the relative changes in deformation and the relaxation-time of the cells in the two samples.
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    Innovations Magazine Fall 2013
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2013) College of Basic and Applied Sciences
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    Effect of overexpressing nhaA and nhaR on sodium tolerance and lactate production in Escherichia coli
    ( 2013-01-25) Wu, Xianghao ; Altman, Ronni ; Eiteman, Mark A ; Altman, Elliot
    Background: Like other bacteria, Escherichia coli must carefully regulate the intracellular concentration of sodium ion (Na+). During the bacterial production of any organic acid, cations like Na+ invariably accumulate during a process which must maintain a near neutral pH. In this study, the E. coli nhaA gene encoding the Na+/H+ antiporter membrane protein and the nhaR gene encoding the NhaA regulatory protein were overexpressed in wild-type E. coli MG1655 and in MG1655 pflB (ALS1317) which lacks pyruvate formate lyase activity and thus accumulates lactate under anaerobic conditions.
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    Molecular details of ligand selectivity determinants in a promiscuous β-glucan periplasmic binding protein
    ( 2013-09-27) Munshi, Parthapratim ; Stanley, Christopher B ; Ghimire-Rijal, Sudipa ; Lu, Xun ; Myles, Dean A ; Cuneo, Matthew J
    Background Members of the periplasmic binding protein (PBP) superfamily utilize a highly conserved inter-domain ligand binding site that adapts to specifically bind a chemically diverse range of ligands. This paradigm of PBP ligand binding specificity was recently altered when the structure of the Thermotoga maritima cellobiose-binding protein (tmCBP) was solved. The tmCBP binding site is bipartite, comprising a canonical solvent-excluded region (subsite one), adjacent to a solvent-filled cavity (subsite two) where specific and semi-specific ligand recognition occur, respectively.
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    Innovations Magazine Fall 2014
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2014) College of Basic and Applied Sciences
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    Deep sequencing of the tobacco mitochondrial transcriptome reveals expressed ORFs and numerous editing sites outside coding regions
    ( 2014-01-13) Grimes, Benjamin T ; Sisay, Awa K ; Carroll, Hyrum D ; Cahoon, A Bruce
    Background: The purpose of this study was to sequence and assemble the tobacco mitochondrial transcriptome and obtain a genomic-level view of steady-state RNA abundance. Plant mitochondrial genomes have a small number of protein coding genes with large and variably sized intergenic spaces. In the tobacco mitogenome these intergenic spaces contain numerous open reading frames (ORFs) with no clear function.
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    Dual roles for ubiquitination in the processing of sperm organelles after fertilization
    ( 2014-02-10) Hajjar, Connie ; Sampuda, Katherine M ; Boyd, Lynn
    Background: The process of fertilization involves a cell fusion event between the sperm and oocyte. Although sperm contain mitochondria when they fuse with the oocyte, paternal mitochondrial genomes do not persist in offspring and, thus, mitochondrial inheritance is maternal in most animals. Recent evidence suggests that paternal mitochondria may be eliminated via autophagy after fertilization. In C. elegans, sperm-specific organelles called membraneous organelles (MO) cluster together with paternal mitochondria immediately after fertilization. These MOs but not the mitochondria become polyubiquitinated and associated with proteasomes. The current model for the elimination of paternal mitochondria in C. elegans is that ubiquitination of the MOs induces the formation of autophagosomes which also capture the mitochondria and cause their degradation.
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    An Improved Systematic Approach to Predicting Transcription Factor Target Genes Using Support Vector Machine
    ( 2014-03-17) Cui, Song ; Youn, Eunseog ; Lee, Joohyun ; Maas, Stephan J. ; Kestler, Hans A.
    Biological prediction of transcription factor binding sites and their corresponding transcription factor target genes (TFTGs) makes great contribution to understanding the gene regulatory networks. However, these approaches are based on laborious and time-consuming biological experiments. Numerous computational approaches have shown great potential to circumvent laborious biological methods. However, the majority of these algorithms provide limited performances and fail to consider the structural property of the datasets. We proposed a refined systematic computational approach for predicting TFTGs. Based on previous work done on identifying auxin response factor target genes from Arabidopsis thaliana co-expression data, we adopted a novel reverse-complementary distance-sensitive n-gram profile algorithm. This algorithm converts each upstream sub-sequence into a high-dimensional vector data point and transforms the prediction task into a classification problem using support vector machine-based classifier. Our approach showed significant improvement compared to other computational methods based on the area under curve value of the receiver operating characteristic curve using 10-fold cross validation. In addition, in the light of the highly skewed structure of the dataset, we also evaluated other metrics and their associated curves, such as precision-recall curves and cost curves, which provided highly satisfactory results.
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    Innovations Magazine Fall 2015
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2015) College of Basic and Applied Sciences
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    Innovations Magazine Fall 2018
    (College of Basic and Applied Sciences, Middle Tennessee State University, 2018) College of Basic and Applied Sciences
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    American Ginseng Germination and Emergence
    ( 2022-09-07) Ethan M Swiggart
    American ginseng (panax quinquefolius) seed germination and emergence. Seeds from American ginseng have double dormancy, meaning they require two years (18 months) to begin the germination process. Seeds require two winters at very cold temperatures, known as cold stratification, and will germinate in the spring. They are quite small, around 6 cm and very difficult to see. This timelapse video shows the emergence of American ginseng and illuminates another interesting fact about the elusive plant. American ginseng has hypogeous germination! This is a somewhat rare occurrence where the cotyledon (seed leaves) remains underground. The hypocotyl (stem) is quite short and the cotyledons force the radicle and epicotyl to elongate. This results in the plant producing true leaves capable of photosynthesis right from the time of emergence. KEYWORDS: American Ginseng, Ginseng, hypogeous, germination