Viruses on the menu: The appendicularian<i>Oikopleura dioica</i>efficiently removes viruses from seawater
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Appendicularians are planktonic marine tunicates with elaborate filter‐feeding houses that can efficiently trap particles as small as 0.2 μm. While marine viruses are seldom considered outside their role in disease transmission, we conducted a controlled laboratory experiment to determine if the appendicularianOikopleura dioicacan trap and ingest theEmiliania huxleyivirus (EhV; 160–180 nm diameter). Removal and retention of EhV during 2.5 h and overnight incubations at 15°C were measured using flow cytometry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction specific for themcpgene of EhV. The fate of retained EhV was tested by quantifying EhV DNA in three biological compartments: house‐trapping, ingestion/digestion, and defecation. Clearance rates for EhV varied from approximately 2 mL ind−1d−1to 50 mL ind−1d−1, with highest rates for 4–5 d‐old animals. EhV particles were cleared byO. dioicaat rates similar to those reported for larger food particles, with mean clearance rates in the 2.5 h incubations ranging from approximately 2 mL ind−1d−1to 50 mL ind−1d−1. This demonstrates efficient virus removal byO. dioicaand a previously overlooked link between the microbial loop and the classical marine food web. EhV DNA was readily detectable above background levels inO. dioicahouses, gut contents, and faecal pellets, suggesting that appendicularian houses and faecal pellets may contribute to the dispersal of viruses. Furthermore, clearance of EhV and presumably other viruses byO. dioicamay be a significant sink for viruses and thus an important factor in regulating the population dynamics of viruses and their hosts.
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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 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 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".