A Cyclic GMP-Dependent K <sup>+</sup> Channel in the Blastocladiomycete Fungus Blastocladiella emersonii
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Phototaxis in flagellated zoospores of the aquatic fungus Blastocladiella emersonii depends on a novel photosensor, Blastocladiella emersonii GC1 (BeGC1), comprising a type I (microbial) rhodopsin fused to a guanylyl cyclase catalytic domain, that produces the conserved second messenger cyclic GMP (cGMP). The rapid and transient increase in cGMP levels during the exposure of zoospores to green light was shown to be necessary for phototaxis and dependent on both rhodopsin function and guanylyl cyclase activity. It is noteworthy that BeGC1 was localized to the zoospore eyespot apparatus, in agreement with its role in the phototactic response. A putative cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (BeCNG1) was also identified in the genome of the fungus and was implicated in flagellar beating via the action of a specific inhibitor (l-cis-diltiazem) that compromised zoospore motility. Here we show that B. emersonii expresses a K(+) channel that is activated by cGMP. The use of specific channel inhibitors confirmed the activation of the channel by cGMP and its K(+) selectivity. These characteristics are consistent with the function of an ion channel encoded by the BeCNG1 gene. Other blastocladiomycete fungi, such as Allomyces macrogynus and Catenaria anguillulae, possess genes encoding a similar K(+) channel and the rhodopsin-guanylyl cyclase fusion protein, while the genes encoding both these proteins are absent in nonflagellated fungi. The presence of these genes as a pair seems to be an exclusive feature of blastocladiomycete fungi. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the B. emersonii cGMP-activated K(+) channel is involved in the control of zoospore motility, most probably participating in the cGMP-signaling pathway for the phototactic response of the fungus.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
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) | 0.000 | 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 itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, 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".