A picture tells a thousand words: transmission electron microscopy of the ciliary transition zone in C. elegans
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a valuable tool for elucidating cilium ultrastructure and the effects of ciliary and ciliopathy gene mutations on cilium integrity. We perform TEM on amphid channel sensory cilia in C. elegans, enabling us to visualise cilium compartments, namely the axoneme, the transition zone (TZ) and the transition fiber/basal body region. In worms, cilia extend from the dendritic tips of 60 sensory neurons. Here we show how TEM can be used to identify ultrastructural defects observed at the TZ of a number of ciliopathy disease gene mutants. In WT worms, the ~1 micron TZ is the most proximal part of the axoneme that extends from the far distal dendrite membrane, and is defined by a drawing together of the 9 doublet microtubules (MT) and Y-links that connect the doublet MTs with the ciliary membrane. In worms with mutations in Meckel-Gruber Syndrome (MKS) and Nephronophthisis (NPHP) gene homologues, we have observed a range of TZ abnormalities. These include TZs with Y-link defects (missing arms, reduced numbers) and TZs that fail to dock at the tip of the dendritic compartment. In most instances, TZ defects are observed only in worms where both MKS and NPHP functional modules are genetically disrupted and not in worms where only one module is abrogated. Together, our observations indicate redundant roles for multiple TZ-associated ciliopathy proteins in establishing physical connections between the TZ and the ciliary membrane.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.006 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.087 | 0.027 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".