The field of plant natural product (NP) discovery has changed substantially since the isolation of morphine from opium poppy in 1806. The largest of these changes came in the last decade with the integration of computational genomics into the field, which resulted in the develop…
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In 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and Mexican government collaborated in the creation of the Mexican Agricultural Program (MAP) to boost the production of hybrid corn and wheat in Mexico. The Mexican government supported the creation of the MAP because it desired higher a…
Since the dawn of time, multicellular life has been exposed to a wide range of microbes. A share of them will not interfere with the host development or daily homeostasis, some might even contribute to it and potentially become essential, such as gut microbiota. However, a small…
Considering molecular interactions within the cell and with the environment can advance our understanding of opportunistic pathogens within a framework of ecology and evolution. For the opportunistic pathogen Proteus mirabilis, self recognition impacts swarming, a collective mot…
The Somatology industry as a discipline involves close body contact, where the risk exists between the client and the therapist, as well as between clients. It is expected that in these personal treatments a good standard of hygiene and cleanliness of surfaces, implements, as we…
Soil biota account for ~25% of global biodiversity and underpins a wide range of ecosystem services. Here defined as soil-dwelling bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, animals, and viruses, soil biota have often been overlooked and generalised in biodiversity surveys and studies …
This thesis describes the isolation and structure elucidation of secondary metabolites from a number of endophytic Xylaria fungi. Six Xylaria endophytes were surface cultured on an aqueous malt extract-glucose medium. The fungus A311R, from a palm tree in Thailand, produced nona…
There is a wealth of scientific evidence associating the dietary intake of omega 3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids with beneficial health properties. In this study, alternative natural sources of these polyunsaturated fatty acids are sought from novel low temperature isol…
Plastic are a highly durable, lightweight and low cost family of polymeric materials that form an essential and integral component of today’s world. Their continued world-wide large scale manufacture has led them to be a major component of man-made waste. A large proportion of p…
Programmed cell death in animals, plants and protists is in part regulated by a variety of proteases, including cysteine aspartyl proteases, (caspases, paracaspases and metacaspases), cathepsins, subtilisin-like serine proteases, vacuolar processing enzymes and the proteasome. T…
Macromolecular structures, such as lignin and cellulose, are important components of soil organic carbon, the major terrestrial global carbon pool. The degradation of these macromolecules, including lignin and cellulose, in plant-derived soil organic matter, is important to the …
Asthma is a heterogeneous condition characterised by variable airflow obstruction, airway inflammation and hyper-responsiveness. Fungal sensitisation has been associated with asthma severity; and airways colonisation by the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus has been associ…
Determining the postmortem interval (PMI) remains one of the most important but challenging factors to establish in a suspicious death investigation. Unfortunately, as time passes current methods lose accuracy and only allow investigators to approximate how long ago death occurr…
Fire is a global phenomenon that annually burns approximately 3% of Earth’s terrestrial surface. While fire is an important component of many terrestrial ecosystems, climate change and anthropogenic influence are expected to alter global fire regimes (particularly fire frequency…
In this dissertation, I analyze the failure of the United States to address the Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi) epidemic that affected American elm (Ulmus americana) across the country. The disease, a fungus carried by beetles between trees, was introduced in 1930 in New Yor…
Vachellia nilotica previously known as Acacia nilotica has invaded Baluran National Park (BNP) since 1969. The tree has directly and indirectly decreased the biodiversity of the flora and fauna of BNP. Land managers have tried physical and chemical methods to control the tree bu…
Chemical pesticides have been used to protect crops, trees and environments from infestation and/or damage caused by pests. Although effective, chemical pesticides leads to environmental pollution overtime. Hence eco-friendly alternatives to chemical pesticides were sought for c…
The South African grassland biome, like a multitude of biomes in the world is facing eminent decline in biodiversity due to ongoing transformation and fragmentation. The rich biodiversity in this biome is causally linked to a variety of important ecosystem services that benefit …
Prairie has become one of the most endangered biomes in North America under changing climates engendered by anthropogenic activity. The patterns of diversity we observe of native prairie species in remnant prairie sites are the outcome of both historical and contemporary process…