Mesoscale morphology at nanoscale resolution: serial block-face scanning electron microscopy reveals fine 3D detail of a novel silk spinneret system in a tube-building tanaid crustacean
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The study of morphology is experiencing a renaissance due to rapid improvements in technologies for 3D visualization of complex internal and external structures. But 3D visualization of the internal structure of mesoscale objects - those in the 10-1000 μm range - remains problematic. They are too small for microCT, many lack suitable specific fluorescent markers for confocal microscopy, or they require labor-intensive stacking and smoothing of individual TEM images. Here we illustrate the first comprehensive morphological description of a complete mesoscale biological system at nanoscopic resolution using ultra-modern technology for 3D visualization - serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM). The SBF-SEM machine combines an in-chamber ultramicrotome, which creates a serial array of exposed surfaces, with an SEM that images each surface as it is exposed. The serial images are then stacked automatically by 3D reconstruction software. We used SBF-SEM to study the spinneret (thread-producing) system of a small, tube-dwelling crustacean that weaves tubes of silk. Thread-producing ability is critical for the survival of many small-bodied animals but the basic morphology of these systems remains mysterious due to the limits of traditional microscopy. RESULTS: SBF-SEM allowed us to describe - in full 3D - well-resolved components (glands, ducts, pores, and associated nerves and muscles) of the spinneret system in the thoracic legs and body segments of Sinelobus sp. (Crustacea, Peracarida, Tanaidacea), a tube-building tanaid only 2 mm in body length. The 3D reconstruction by SBF-SEM revealed at nanoscale resolution a unique structure to the gland and duct systems: In each of three thread-producing thoracic segments, two separate ducts, derived from two separate glands located in the body, run through the entire leg and merge at the leg tip just before the spinneret pore opening. We also resolved nerves connecting to individual setae, spines and pores on the walking legs, and individual muscles within each leg segment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results significantly expand our understanding of the diversity of spinneret systems in the Crustacea by providing the first well-resolved view of spinneret components in the peracarid crustacean order, Tanaidacea. More significantly, our results reveal the great power of SBF-SEM technology for comprehensive studies of the morphology of microscopic animals.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
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 it