Welcome to the Reader's Corner!
On this page you can discover summaries of primary literature by undergraduate students, read publications and reports, and view relevant data graphs.
Primary Literature Summaries
In an article published in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers report on a monarch butterfly gene that has experienced two mutations. Previous research proposed that both of these mutations may provide monarch butterflies with resistance to cardenolide First, something about cardenolides and then back to mutations. Cardenolides are a type of steroid. Many plants contain its derivatives, collectively known as cardenolides, including many that contain structural groups derived from sugars. Cardenolide glycosides are often toxic; specifically, they can stop hearts.
Publications
Management practices at western monarch butterfly overwintering sites are often based on the "common knowledge" that monarchs "prefer" eucalyptus. Yet whether or not monarchs prefer eucalyptus has never been formally tested, in part because such a test would require that monarchs have a choice (options) and express a preference given those options. A test of the hypothesis is provided here.
Latest Survey Data
For more information regarding the graph data, contact Francis Villablanca, Ph.D. at fvillabl@calpoly.edu.
