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Studies of animal contests often focus solely on a single static measurement of fighting ability, such as the size or the strength of the individual. However, recent studies have highlighted the importance of individual variation in the dynamic behaviors used during a fight, such as, assessment strategies, decision making, and fine motor control, as being strong predictors of the outcome of aggression. Here, I combined morphological and behavioral data to discover how these features interact during aggressing interactions in male virile crayfish, Faxonius virilis. I predicted that individual variation in behavioral skill for decision making (i.e., number of strikes thrown), would determine the outcome of contest success in addition to morphological measurements (e.g. body size, relative claw size). To evaluate this prediction, I filmed staged territorial interactions between male F. virilis and later analyzed trial behaviors (e.g. strike, pinches, and bout time) and aggressive outcomes. I found very little support for skill to predict win/loss outcome in trials. Instead, I found that larger crayfish engaged in aggression for longer compared to smaller crayfish, but that larger crayfish did not engage in a greater number of claw strikes or pinches when controlling for encounter duration. Future studies should continue to investigate the role of skill, by using finer-scale techniques such as 3D tracking software, which could track advanced measurements (e.g. speed, angle, and movement efficiency). Such studies would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relative influence of fighting skill technique on territorial contests.
Most protein-coding mRNAs in eukaryotes must undergo a series of processing steps so they can be exported from the nucleus and translated into protein. Cleavage and polyadenylation are vital steps in this maturation process. Improper cleavage and polyadenylation results in variation in the 3′ UTR length of genes, which is a hallmark of various human diseases. Previous data have shown that the majority of 3’UTRs of mRNAs from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans terminate at an adenosine nucleotide, and that mutating this adenosine disrupts the cleavage reaction. It is unclear if the adenosine is included in the mature mRNA transcript or if it is cleaved off. To address this question, we are developing a novel method called the Terminal Adenosine Methylation (TAM) assay which will allow us to precisely define whether the cleavage reaction takes place upstream or downstream of this terminal adenosine. The TAM Assay utilizes the ability of the methyltransferase domain (MTD) of the human methyltransferase METTL16 to methylate the terminal adenosine of a test mRNA transcript prior to the cleavage reaction in vivo. The presence or absence of methylation at the terminal adenosine will then be identified using direct RNA sequencing. This project focuses on 1) preparing the chimeric construct that positions the MTD on the mRNA cleavage site of a test mRNA transcript, and 2) testing the functionality of this construct in vitro and developing a transgenic C. elegans strain expressing it. The TAM assay has the potential to be a valuable tool for elucidating the role of the terminal adenosine in cleavage and polyadenylation.