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The nonconventional yeast Issatchenkia orientalis has emerged as a potential platform microorganism for production of organic acids due to its ability to grow robustly under highly acidic conditions. However, lack of efficient genetic tools remains a major bottleneck in metabolic engineering of this organism. Here we report that the autonomously replicating sequence (ARS) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ScARS) was functional for plasmid replication in I. orientalis, and the resulting episomal plasmid enabled efficient genome editing by the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The optimized CRISPR/Cas9-based system employed a fusion RPR1′-tRNA promoter for single guide RNA (sgRNA) expression and could attain greater than 97% gene disruption efficiency for various gene targets. Additionally, we demonstrated multiplexed gene deletion with disruption efficiencies of 90% and 47% for double gene and triple gene knockouts, respectively. This genome editing tool can be used for rapid strain development and metabolic engineering of this organism for production of biofuels and chemicals.

Dataset for "Spatial drivers of wetland bird occupancy within an urbanized matrix in the Upper Midwestern United States" manuscript contains occupancy data for ten wetland bird species used in single-species occupancy models at four spatial scales and four wetland habitat types. Data were collected from 2017-2019 in NE Illinois and NW Indiana. Dataset includes wetland bird occupancy data, habitat parameter values for each survey location, and R code used to run analyses.

Rhodotorula toruloides is a non-model, oleaginous yeast uniquely suited to produce acetyl-CoA-derived chemicals. However, the lack of well-characterized genomic integration sites has impeded the metabolic engineering of this organism. Here we report a set of computationally predicted and experimentally validated chromosomal integration sites in R. toruloides. We first implemented an in silico platform by integrating essential gene information and transcriptomic data to identify candidate sites that meet stringent criteria. We then conducted a full experimental characterization of these sites, assessing integration efficiency, gene expression levels, impact on cell growth, and long-term expression stability. Among the identified sites, 12 exhibited integration efficiencies of 50% or higher, making them sufficient for most metabolic engineering applications. Using selected high-efficiency sites, we achieved simultaneous double and triple integrations and efficiently integrated long functional pathways (up to 14.7 kb). Additionally, we developed a new inducible marker recycling system that allows multiple rounds of integration at our characterized sites. We validated this system by performing five sequential rounds of GFP integration and three sequential rounds of MaFAR integration for fatty alcohol production, demonstrating, for the first time, precise gene copy number tuning in R. toruloides. These characterized integration sites should significantly advance metabolic engineering efforts and future genetic tool development in R. toruloides.

Supplemental Forest Data for Chapter 6: Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems in "An Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change in Illinois"

- The aim of this research was to evaluate the novel dietary fiber source, miscanthus grass, in comparison to traditional fiber sources, and their effects on the microbiota of healthy adult cats. Four dietary treatments, cellulose (CO), miscanthus grass fiber (MF), a blend of miscanthus fiber and tomato pomace (MF+TP), or beet pulp (BP) were evaluated.<br /><br />- The study was conducted using a completely randomized design with twenty-eight neutered adult, domesticated shorthair cats (19 females and 9 males, mean age 2.2 ± 0.03 yr; mean body weight 4.6 ± 0.7 kg, mean body condition score 5.6 ± 0.6). Total DNA from fresh fecal samples was extracted using Mo-Bio PowerSoil kits (MO BIO Laboratories, Inc., Carlsbad, CA). Amplification of the 292 bp-fragment of V4 region from the 16S rRNA gene was completed using a Fluidigm Access Array (Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA). Paired-end Illumina sequencing was performed on a MiSeq using v3 reagents (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) at the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center at the University of Illinois. <br />- Filenames are composed of animal name identifier, diet (BP= beet pulp; CO= cellulose; MF= miscanthus grass fiber; TP= blend of miscanthus fiber and tomato pomace).

This dataset includes mass spectrometry, library screening, and gas chromatography data used for creating a high-throughput screening in metabolic engineering.

The materials used to provide Continuing Medical Education on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Illinois on February 1, 2023 at Carle Hospital, along with the pre- and post-quiz and deidentified data of the quiz takers. Files: "Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases of Illinois_Final_w_speaker_notes.pptx": Presentation slides used for CME course, with notes to indicate verbal commentary "CME assessment_final.docx": Pre- and post-CME quiz questions and answers, annotated to indicate correct answers and reasoning for incorrect answers "CME_prequiz_data_for_sharing.csv": De-identified data from pre-CME quiz "CME_postquiz_data_for_sharing.csv": De-identified data from post-CME quiz, including demographics "DataCleaning_forSharing.R": R file used to clean the raw data and calculate the scores "ReadMe.txt":

Various works have quantitatively characterized the effects of environmental and management factors on Miscanthus x giganteus Greef et Deu (mxg) yield and, therefore, anticipated land requirement per unit production. However, little work has addressed the effects of cutting height, which may significantly contribute to the difference between the standing aboveground biomass at harvest (i.e., biological yield) and harvested yield. This study quantitatively characterized the effect of cutting height using a replicated nitrogen trial of a 5-year-old mxg stand in southeast Iowa and related this information to observations of cutting height in nearby commercial fields. Nitrogen fertilizer did not significantly change the relationship of the stem segment mass to length, and overall, a 1-cm stem segment contributes 0.5% of the total stem biomass within the bottom 44 cm of the stem. This results in an average harvest loss of 15% of the aboveground standing biomass when cutting at 30 cm, typically seen in commercial mxg fields in eastern Iowa. Cutting height should be considered when accurately predicting commercial mxg harvest yields and changes in soil organic carbon in a commercial mxg agroecosystem.

This repository includes datasets for the paper "Re-evaluating Deep Neural Networks for Phylogeny Estimation: The issue of taxon sampling" accepted for RECOMB2021 and submitted to Journal of Computational Biology. Each zipped file contains a README.

A wide range of inorganic and organic chemicals are used during the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass to produce biofuels. Developing an industrially relevant 2G biorefinery process using such chemicals is challenging and requires more unit operations for downstream processing. A sustainable process has been developed to achieve industrially relevant titers of bioethanol with significant ethanol yield. The pretreatment of sorghum biomass was performed by a continuous pilot-scale hydrothermal reactor followed by disk milling. Enzymatic hydrolysis was performed without washing the pretreated biomass. Moreover, citrate buffer strength was reduced to 100-fold (50 mM to 0.5 mM) during the enzymatic hydrolysis. Enzymatic hydrolysis at 0.5 mM citrate buffer strength showed that significant sugar concentrations of 222 ± 2.3 to 241 ± 2.3 g/L (glucose + xylose) were attained at higher solids loadings of 50 to 60% (w/v). Furthermore, hydrolysates were fermented to produce bioethanol using two different xylose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains and a co-culture of xylose-fermenting and non-GMO yeast cultures. Bioethanol titer of 81.7 g/L was achieved with an ethanol yield of 0.48 gp/gs. Additionally, lipids were produced using the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides, yielding 13.2 g/L lipids with cellular lipid accumulation of 38.5% w/w from 100 g/L of sugar concentration. In summary, reducing the strength of the citrate buffer during enzymatic hydrolysis and omitting inorganic chemicals from the pretreatment process enhances the fermentability of hydrolysates and can also reduce operating costs.

Datasets that accompany Shearer and Beilke 2022 publication (Title: Playing it by ear: gregarious sparrows recognize and respond to isolated wingbeat sounds and predator-based cues.; Journal: Animal Cognition)

These data represent the raw data from the paper “Evaluating the ability of wetland mitigation banks to replace plant species lost from destroyed wetlands” published in Journal of Applied Ecology in 2023 by Stephen C. Tillman and Jeffrey W. Matthews.

West Nile virus data, aggregated by 55 1-km hexagons, within the NWMAD jurisdiction Cook County, IL. The data incorporates deidentified human illness, mosquito infection and abundance, socio-economic data, and other abiotic and biotic predictors by epi-weeks 18-38 for the years 2005-2016.

These datasets contain the complete output from a Monte Carlo simulation of the number of wild cervids to test for chronic wasting disease (CWD) depending on true prevalence. Five CSVs of the simulation results are provided, split due to limitations in file size. The R code used to run the simulation and process the data is included. The data to replicated Table 1 and the data used to compare the simulation results to the CWD surveillance efforts of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) are also provided.

Information to characterize the solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF)-gross primary production (GPP) relationship in C4 cropping systems remains limited. The annual C4 crop corn and perennial C4 crop miscanthus differ in phenology, canopy structure and leaf physiology. Investigating the SIF-GPP relationships in these species could deepen our understanding of SIF-GPP relationships within C4 crops. Using in situ canopy SIF and GPP measurements for both species along with leaf-level measurements, we found considerable differences in the SIF-GPP relationships between corn and miscanthus, with a stronger SIF-GPP relationship and higher slope of SIF-GPP observed in corn compared to miscanthus. These differences were mainly caused by leaf physiology. For miscanthus, high non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) under high light, temperature and water vapor deficit (VPD) conditions caused a large decline of fluorescence yield (ΦF), which further led to a SIF midday depression and weakened the SIF-GPP relationship. The larger slope in corn than miscanthus was mainly due to its higher GPP in mid-summer, largely attributed to the higher leaf photosynthesis and less NPQ. Our results demonstrated variation of the SIF-GPP relationship within C4 crops and highlighted the importance of leaf physiology in determining canopy SIF behaviors and SIF-GPP relationships.

Matlab codes for the article "Phage-antibiotic synergy inhibited by temperate and chronic virus competition". Code can be used to reproduce the article figures, perform the parameter sensitivity analysis and simulate the model.

Supplemental data sets for the Manuscript entitled " Assembly of wood-inhabiting archaeal, bacterial and fungal communities along a salinity gradient: common taxa are broadly distributed but locally abundant in preferred habitats"

Overwintering ability is an important selection criterion for Miscanthus breeding in temperate regions. Insufficient overwintering ability of the currently leading Miscanthus biomass cultivar, M. ×giganteus (M×g) ‘1993–1780′, in regions where average annual minimum temperatures are −26.1°C (USDA hardiness zone 5) or lower poses a pressing need to develop new cultivars with superior cold tolerance. To facilitate breeding of Miscanthus, this study characterized phenotypic and genetic variation of overwintering ability in an M. sinensis germplasm panel consisting of 564 accessions, evaluated in field trials at three locations in North America and two in Asia. Genome‐wide association (GWA) and genomic prediction analyses were performed. The Korea/N China M. sinensis genetic group is a valuable gene pool for cold tolerance. The Yangtze‐Qinling, Southern Japan, and Northern Japan genetic groups were also potential sources of cold tolerance. A total of 73 marker–trait associations were detected for overwintering ability. Estimated breeding value for overwintering ability based on these 73 markers could explain 55% of the variation for first winter overwintering ability among M. sinensis. Average genomic prediction ability for overwintering ability across 50 fivefold cross‐validations was high (~0.73) after accounting for population structure. Common genomic regions for overwintering ability were detected by GWA analyses and a previous parallel QTL mapping study using three interconnected biparental F1 populations. One QTL on Miscanthus LG 8 encompassed five GWA hits and a known cold‐responsive gene, COR47. The other overwintering ability QTL on Miscanthus LG 11 contained two GWA hits and three known cold stress‐related genes, carboxylesterase 13 (CEX13), WRKY2 transcription factor, and cold shock domain (CSDP1). Miscanthus accessions collected from high latitude locations with cold winters had higher rates of overwintering, and more alleles for overwintering, than accessions collected from southern locations with mild winters.

VCF files used to analyze a novel filtering tool VEF, presented in the article "VEF: a Variant Filtering tool based on Ensemble methods".

- The objective of this study was to evaluate macronutrient apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD), gastrointestinal tolerance, and fermentative end-products in extruded, canine diets. <br />- Five diets were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous with either garbanzo beans (GBD), green lentils (GLD), peanut flour (PFD), dried yeast (DYD), or poultry by-product meal (CON) as the primary protein sources. Ten adult, intact, female beagles (mean age: 4.2 ± 1.1 yr, mean 28 weight: 11.9 ± 1.3 kg) were used in a replicated, 5x5 Latin square design with 14 d periods. Total DNA from fresh fecal samples was extracted using Mo-Bio PowerSoil kits (MO BIO Laboratories, Inc., Carlsbad, CA). Amplification of the 292 bp-fragment of V4 region from the 16S rRNA gene was completed using a Fluidigm Access Array (Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA). Paired-end Illumina sequencing was performed on a MiSeq using v3 reagents (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA) at the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center at the University of Illinois. <br />- Filenames are composed of animal name identifier, diet (CON=control; DY= dried yeast; GB= garbanzo beans; GL= green lentils; PF= peanut flour) and period replicate number (P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5).

This dataset contains re-estimated gene trees from the ASTRAL-II [1] simulated datasets. The re-estimated variants of the datasets are called MC6H and MC11H -- they are derived from the MC6 and MC11 conditions from the original data (the MC6 and MC11 names are given by ASTRID [2]). The uploaded files contain the sequence alignments (half-length their original alignments), and the re-estimated species trees using FastTree2. Note: - "mc6h.tar.gz" and "mc11h.tar.gz" contain the sequence alignments and the re-estimated gene trees for the two conditions - the sequence alignments are in the format "all-genes.phylip.splitted.[i].half" where i means that this alignment is for the i-th alignment of the original dataset, but truncating the alignment halving its length - "g1000.trees" under each replicate contains the newline-separated re-estimated gene trees. The gene trees were estimated from the above described alignments using FastTree2 (version 2.1.11) command "FastTree -nt -gtr" [1]: Mirarab, S., & Warnow, T. (2015). ASTRAL-II: coalescent-based species tree estimation with many hundreds of taxa and thousands of genes. Bioinformatics, 31(12), i44-i52. [2]: Vachaspati, P., & Warnow, T. (2015). ASTRID: accurate species trees from internode distances. BMC genomics, 16(10), 1-13.

This dataset is for the publication "Do Nearctic hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) engage in long-distance migration? An assessment of evidence and mechanisms." It consists of 11 Excel spreadsheets and 4 R scripts which correspond to the analyses which were conducted. Paper abstract: Long-distance insect migration is poorly understood despite its tremendous ecological and economic importance. As a group, Nearctic hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae: Syrphinae), which are crucial pollinators as adults and biological control agents as larvae, are almost entirely unrecognized as migratory despite examples of highly migratory behavior among several Palearctic species. Here, we examined evidence and mechanisms of migration for four hover fly species (Allograpta obliqua, Eupeodes americanus, Syrphus rectus, and Syrphus ribesii) common throughout eastern North America using stable hydrogen isotope (δ2H) measurements of chitinous tissue, morphological assessments, abundance estimations, and cold-tolerance assays. While further studies are needed, non-local isotopic values obtained from hover fly specimens collected in central Illinois support the existence of long-distance fall migratory behavior in Eu. americanus, and to a lesser extent S. ribesii and S. rectus. Elevated abundance of Eu. americanus during the expected autumn migratory period further supports the existence of such behavior. Moreover, high phenotypic plasticity of morphology associated with dispersal coupled with significant differences between local and non-local specimens suggest that Eu. americanus exhibits a unique suite of morphological traits that decrease costs associated with long-distance flight. Finally, compared to the ostensibly non-migratory A. obliqua, Eu. americanus was less cold tolerant, a factor that may be associated with migratory behavior. Collectively, our findings imply that fall migration occurs in Nearctic hover flies, but we consider methodological limitations of our study in addition to potential ecological and economic consequences of these novel findings.

Photographs and video of two Lesser Chameleons (Furcifer minor) nesting together at the same time near Itremo, Madagascar.

This study acquired publicly available Shell annual reports. Reports were selected for the years since the UN investigation in 2011, resulting in documents from 2012 to 2023.