Development of a novel assay for extensive characterization of the germination conditions of Spraguea americanus: a microsporidian parasite of the American anglerfish (Lophius americanus)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
• Novel plate-based assay for quantifying the germination responses of microsporidia. • Spraguea americanus spores germinate in response to hydrogen peroxide, sodium bicarbonate, calcium and mechanical pressure. • Spraguea americanus spores exhibit a bimodal dose response to hydrogen peroxide. • Spraguea americanus and Spraguea lophii spores germinate under different conditions. The microsporidia are a widespread group of intracellular parasites which infect a broad range of hosts across the animal kingdom. In particular, the microsporidian Spraguea americanus has received considerable attention in recent years due to its role as an endemic pathogen in American anglerfish ( Lophius americanus ), a species of highly valued finfish currently at risk due to overfishing. However, like many species of microsporidia, the germination responses of S. americanus remain poorly described. This study outlines a novel in vitro germination assay for microsporidians, which is then used to comprehensively survey the germination responses of S. americanus under a variety of conditions. The results of this investigation indicate that S. americanus is responsive to mechanical pressure, hydrogen peroxide, sodium carbonate/bicarbonate and divalent cations, but not to mucus or mucin proteins as seen in closely related species. These observations provide evidence to refute the predominant hypothesis that members of Spraguea enter their hosts via the subcutaneous mucosal glands. In addition to providing much needed insight into the transmission of Spraguea spp., this study is among the first to extensively assess the germination responses of a single species of microsporidia; data which may lend itself to a more complete understanding of the mechanisms underlying the initiation of germination in microsporidia or support the establishment of new in vitro models for economically relevant species.
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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 | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
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".