Jessica LaPrice

Education

• B.A. Biology, Central College, Pella, IA, 2005
• Ph.D. Zoology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 2010
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, 2011
• NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, 2012

Research

I’m interested in better understanding the ways in which animal physiology responds to changes in environmental conditions. My main research organism is the 13-lined ground squirrel, a burrowing, hibernating rodent that lives in grasslands across North America from Texas to Canada. My current research projects fall into two main areas: 

1. How do 13-lined ground squirrels manage energy allocation as they transition between winter hibernation, spring reproduction, and summer fattening? These animals become obese prior to hibernation, then cease feeding entirely and live off of those fat stores for months at a time as they dramatically reduce their metabolic rates and body temperatures drop to 0 degrees Celsius. Then in the spring, animals emerge from hibernation and immediately reproduce, in some cases before they even start eating again. By measuring and manipulating a variety of physiological parameters (like metabolic rate, body composition, food intake, and hormone levels) in captive 13-lined ground squirrels, my lab works to better understand the mechanisms that control those seasonal changes in energy allocation.
2. How will climate change affect the 13-lined ground squirrel? Since this species lives over a very wide latitudinal gradient, it experiences a huge range of environmental conditions, from hot dry summers in Texas to long cold winters in Canada. As such, it provides a great animal model to understand the physiological extremes that mammals are capable of, and an opportunity to see how the same species responds to very different environmental conditions. The species is disappearing at the southern edge of its range, but it is it simultaneously expanding northward? How much physiological capacity does the species have to acclimate or adapt to changing conditions? How genetically different are the animals at the northern and southern edges of the species range? These questions and more are part of a study my lab is developing with collaborators at several other institutions. 

Teaching

• Life at the Crossroads (BIOL 111)
• Animal Physiology in a Changing Climate (BIOL 270)
• Field Mammalogy (BIOL 297)
• Extreme Physiology (BIOL 395)
• Ecophysiology (BIOL 395)

Selected Publications

*+Kim, B., *+Ziccardi, C., *+Cross, K., *+Obialor, W., *+Rodriguez-Moreno, L., LaPrice, J.E. Energy balance in captive active-season 13-lined ground squirrels (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus). In prep for submission to Integrative and Comparative Biology.

*Solis, E., *Davis, E., *Dickerson, H., *Tessier, V., *Armstrong, T., Healy-LaPrice, J.E. 2022. Thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) morphology and burrow placement across a latitudinal range. Western North American Naturalist 82(3) pp. 549–562. https://doi.org/10.3398/064.082.0310

*Dickerson, H., *Tessier, V., *Davis, E., *Solis, E., *Armstrong, T., Healy-LaPrice, J.E. 2022. Body temperature patterns and energy balance hormones in free-living thirteen-lined ground squirrels (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) from different latitudes. Physiological & Biochemical Zoology 95(6). https://doi.org/10.1086/721443 .

Foradori, C.D., Healy, J.E., Zimmerman, A.D., Kemppainen, R.J., Jones, M.A., Read, C.C., White, B.D., Don, K.Y., Hinds, L.R., Lacagnina, A.F., Quihuis, A.M., Breckenridge, C.B., Handa, R.J., 2018. Characterization of activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by the herbicide atrazine in the female rat. Endocrinol. 159 (9): 3378-3388.

Healy, J.E., Florant, G.L., 2012. Ghrelin, leptin, and fatty acids in free-living Callospermophilus lateralis (Golden-mantled ground squirrels). In: Ruf T, Bieber C, Arnold W, Millesi E (eds). Living in a seasonal world: thermoregulatory and metabolic adaptations. Springer, Heidelberg, 519-529.

Healy, J.E., *Burdett, K.A., Buck, C.L., Florant, G.L., 2012. Sex differences in torpor patterns during natural hibernation in golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis). J. Mamm. 93 (3) 751-758.

Florant, G.L., Healy, J.E., 2012. The regulation of food intake in mammalian hibernators: a review. J. Comp. Physiol. B 182 (4) 451-467.

Healy, J.E., *Gearhart, C.N., *Bateman, J.L., Handa, R.J., Florant, G.L., 2011. AMPK and ACC change with fasting and physiological condition in euthermic and hibernating golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis). Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A Mol. Integr. Physiol. 159 (3) 322-331.

Healy, J.E., *Bateman, J.L., *Ostrom, C.E., Florant, G.L., 2011. Peripheral ghrelin stimulates feeding behavior and positive energy balance in a sciurid hibernator. Horm. Behav. 59 (4): 512-519.

Florant, G.L., *Fenn, A.M., Healy, J.E., Wilkerson, G.K., Handa, R.J., 2010. To Eat or Not to Eat: The effect of AICAR on food intake regulation in yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris). J. Exp. Biol. 213: 2031-2037.

Healy, J.E., *Ostrom, C.E., Wilkerson, G.K., Florant, G.L., 2010. Plasma ghrelin concentrations change with physiological state in a sciurid hibernator (Spermophilus lateralis). Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 166 (2): 372-378.

Healy, J.E., *Richter, M.M., *Suu, L., Fried, S.K., Florant, G.L., 2008. Changes in serum leptin concentrations with fat mass in golden-mantled ground squirrels (Spermophilus lateralis). In: Lovegrove, B.G. and McKechnie, A.E. (eds.). Hypometabolism in animals: torpor, hibernation and cryobiology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

*+ indicates W&L student co-author
* indicates undergraduate co-author