A Large Number of Nuclear Genes in the Human Parasite Blastocystis Require mRNA Polyadenylation to Create Functional Termination Codons
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Termination codons in mRNA molecules are typically specified directly by the sequence of the corresponding gene. However, in mitochondria of a few eukaryotic groups, some mRNAs contain the termination codon UAA deriving one or both adenosines from transcript polyadenylation. Here, we show that a similar phenomenon occurs for a substantial number of nuclear genes in Blastocystis spp., divergent unicellular eukaryote gut parasites. Our analyses of published genomic data from Blastocystis sp. subtype 7 revealed that polyadenylation-mediated creation of termination codons occurs in approximately 15% of all nuclear genes. As this phenomenon has not been noticed before, the procedure previously employed to annotate the Blastocystis nuclear genome sequence failed to correctly define the structure of the 3'-ends of hundreds of genes. From sequence data we have obtained from the distantly related Blastocystis sp. subtype 1 strain, we show that this phenomenon is widespread within the Blastocystis genus. Polyadenylation in Blastocystis appears to be directed by a conserved GU-rich element located four nucleotides downstream of the polyadenylation site. Thus, the highly precise positioning of the polyadenylation in Blastocystis has allowed reduction of the 3'-untranslated regions to the point that, in many genes, only one or two nucleotides of the termination codon are left.
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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 | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.003 |
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".