Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 89 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

The nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, is a sedentary shark species that inhabits coral reefs in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean and along the western coast of the Americas in the Pacific Ocean. Nurse shark tissue samples were collected from the Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, and Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida. 186 individuals were genotyped at 11 microsatellite loci, the control region of the mitochondrial genome was sequenced in 190 individuals, and 89 individuals from the Bahamas, Belize, and Dry Tortugas were genotyped at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class IIα locus. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) for the microsatellite loci indicated significant subdivision only between the Bahamas and Dry Tortugas populations. An AMOVA for the mitochondrial control region sequences indicated significant subdivision between all population pairs. The AMOVA for MHC class IIα locus indicated significant subdivision between two population pairs: the Bahamas population and the Dry Tortugas population and the Belize population and the Dry Tortugas population. The nurse shark has the lowest mitochondrial DNA nucleotide diversity (π=0.0125%) and haplotype diversity (h=0.2402) of any shark species to date. There were 14 MHC alleles from 39 polymorphic sites; ten were the same as published alleles (Kasahara et al. 1993; Ohta et al. 2000). This study was the first study to use MHC class IIα genes as a marker for population genetics in sharks. Our results showed that MHC class IIα locus behaves as a diploid locus and is a powerful tool for determining population genetic structure between populations.

Although DNA repair capacity has been correlated with lifespan in terrestrial vertebrate species, it remains unknown how evolutionarily conserved the process is across all vertebrate taxa. In particular, chondrichthyan fishes have lifespans that range from 3-350 years and they are evolutionarily separated from modern humans Homo sapiens by approximately 400 million years. We hypothesized that chondrichthyan fishes would show significant homology in nuclear excision repair (NER) genes with humans, and that the expression of NER genes will correlate with the lifespan of the respective assessed species. For this study, DNA repair gene homology and expression was performed on the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum (n=3) and yellow stingray Urobatis jamaicensis (n=3). The five main NER pathways were analyzed and compared to see the differences in both elasmobranch species, then compared with human foreskin fibroblast samples (n=3). RNA sequencing was used to determine the extent of gene expression in each species, comparing the read counts in each gene and comparing between the two species. The elephant shark Callorhinchus milii reference genome was used to align the nurse shark and yellow stingray samples. Homology of each gene of the NER pathways was assessed by the NCBI BLAST software. Results show that the MMR pathway has all the significant genes in higher frequencies in the nurse shark than in human. Within elasmobranchs in the five DNA repair pathways, the longer-lived species (nurse shark) has a significant higher gene expression than shorter-lived species (yellow stingray). Genes involved in the NER and BER pathways showed significantly lower expression in elasmobranch than in humans. However, there were significantly higher expression of more genes for the HR and MMR pathways in elasmobranchs than in humans.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 89 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The ability of an organism to modulate its feeding behavior is an important focus of feeding ecology studies. Modulation is the ability to distinctly and consistently alter a behavior to accommodate different stimuli. The goal of this study was to examine the ability of the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum to modulate its food capture behavior with different sizes and types of food items. This was carried out through kinematic and electromyographic analysis. Eight sub-adult specimens of G. cirratum were filmed feeding on two different food types (squid and fish) and sizes (gape size and larger than gape size). Filming consisted of high-speed videography utilizing a low-light digital video system. Kinematic variables related to lower jaw movement, mouth width, and head angle were measured from video footage. Up to twelve muscles in each of six specimens were implanted with bipolar electrodes to measure the onset and duration of motor activity. / ABSTRACT: There were no significant differences between food sizes and any of the kinematic variables. Only two muscles showed significant differences in onset time based on food size. In regards to food types, squid bites were significantly faster than fish bites, but when examined proportionately to bite duration only the time to jaw closure remained significantly different. The motor pattern of G. cirratum demonstrates an anterior to posterior sequence, which corresponds to the anterior to posterior kinematic sequence. Little cranial elevation is present during feeding sequences and is not thought to contribute significantly to feeding. Ginglymostoma cirratum is a stereotyped, inertial suction feeder. There is little evidence that there is modulation in feeding behavior based on food size or food type. If modulation does exist in the feeding behavior, it is more likely to occur after prey capture while the prey is being processed and manipulated prior to transport. / ABSTRACT: Initial observations suggested that a novel behavior termed 'spit-suck manipulation' is utilized for larger prey items. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.