Sequence homogeneity of internal transcribed spacer rDNA in Mikrocytos mackini and detection of Mikrocytos sp. in a new location
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Mikrocytos mackini is a microcell parasite of Pacific oysters only known to occur on the Pacific coast of North America. It is the only described species in the genus, although a genetically divergent Mikrocytos sp. organism has been reported once in both the Atlantic Ocean and China. We developed methods for sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA for the purpose of characterizing extant diversity within M. mackini throughout its known geographic range, and surveying for other evidence of Mikrocytos sp. organisms. Our specific aims were to examine relatedness of M. mackini among sites to make inferences about its recent evolutionary history, and to provide baseline data for future development of a species-specific molecular detection method. We found a total lack of genetic variation within M. mackini across the complete ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 array in over 70 samples collected throughout its range. We hypothesize that this could be a result of a founder effect if the parasite had been introduced into its known range alongside its host, which was imported from Asia beginning around 1914 to about 1961. We detected a single divergent sequence at a short stretch of 18S that was identical to the Mikrocytos sp. detected elsewhere, which adds to the recent and growing body of evidence that Mikrocytos is much more broadly distributed than the limited range of M. mackini suggests. A 1903 bp section of rDNA from Mikrocytos sp. was generated that contained regions of high divergence from M. mackini (in ITS1 and ITS2) that could be exploited for molecular diagnostics.
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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 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 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 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".