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kinetocyst discharge

traitmech:000687 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A physiological phenotype in which a microbial cell releases material from kinetocysts to the cell exterior.

Trait evidence (3)

  • DOI:10.1078/0932-4739-00847
    By electron microscopy, we show evidence that the kinetocyst is an extrusive organelle that discharges its contents upon food capture.

    Sakaguchi et al. 2002, scientific Abstract directly read on 2026-10-10 at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222864147. Electron microscopy of Raphidiophrys contractilis supports release during food capture, with the posterior remaining cell-attached and the anterior directed toward prey. The proposed scaffold role is not demonstrated causality. Crossref identifies the 2002 publication; ResearchGate's date and automatically linked author profile are not used as authority. Publisher access returned 403; full Methods and figures were not inspected. No universal toxin, prey-killing requirement or trigger is inferred.

  • DOI:10.1515/znc-1976-3-418
    Freeze-fracture studies reveal that extrusive organelles displaying saltatory particle movements in centrohelidian axopod are attached to highly ordered domains within the plasma membrane.

    Bardele 1976, PMID:134561. Scientific abstract and primary full-text OCR directly read on 2026-10-10 at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/22999924. The snippet supports organelle identity and membrane attachment, not discharge alone. Printed pp191-193 describe formaldehyde-fume-induced release in living whole mounts and negative-stained expelled jacket material. Methods name Acanthocystis erinaceoides and Raphidiophrys ambigua; this observation is not assigned here to just one species. The author interprets kinetocysts as compound motile mucocysts. Food-trapping and movement models remain hypotheses. PDF images were unavailable; no visual audit or OCR-normalized quotation is claimed. The article year is 1976, not the later upload date.

  • https://protistology.jp/journal/congress_ab/53th_kobe/Abstract%20Book%20Kobe2020
    In this study, we used Tetrahymena thermophila as food and examined the process of food capturing and kinetocyst discharge by electron microscopy.

    Wan and Suzaki, JSP/KSOP joint meeting, 22-23 November 2020, O-BPA06/P-1A01, printed pp11-12 (PDF indices 10-11). Primary conference abstract, not a peer-reviewed full paper. Both pages were visually inspected on 2026-10-10. The snippet establishes assay context in Raphidiophrys contractilis, not the outcome alone. Following results describe stretched filamentous contents and expansion of the ring structure after discharge. Immuno-EM MVP localization suggests a prey-recognition role but does not establish causal necessity or a conserved release mechanism. Tetrahymena is prey here, not the kinetocyst-bearing organism.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1078/0932-4739-00847

Parent traits (1)

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (2)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Resolve historical mucocyst terminology and exocytosis placement.

CURATION TODO OPEN kinetocyst-discharge-scope-and-parent · raised by codex · 2026-10-10

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

Retain phenotype METPO:1000059 pending hierarchy review. Bardele 1976 interprets kinetocysts as compound motile mucocysts; preserve that attribution rather than asserting separation from every historical mucocyst umbrella. Existing mucocyst discharge traitmech:000684 uses a membrane-fusion release definition supported in Tetrahymena and explicitly defers terminology reconciliation. Neither exact equivalence nor a mucocyst parent is established here. The fusion-pore differentia of exocytosis traitmech:000637 also needs class-wide scope review; placement is unresolved, not excluded. Possession, docking, axopodial movement or contraction, prey adhesion, ingestion and nonspecific cell lysis alone do not demonstrate discharge. Complete emptying, prey death and one universal trigger are not required. Historical conicyst organelle terminology does not automatically establish an exact phenotype synonym. No equivalence to haptocyst discharge traitmech:000686, homology, disjointness, exact synonyms or xrefs are asserted.

Resolve assay-strain provenance and release-specific molecular evidence.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN kinetocyst-discharge-exemplars-and-mechanism · raised by codex · 2026-10-10

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

No canonical examples are assigned: full primary assay Methods and their relation to the deposited natural culture need joint verification. The evidence items have different scopes, not three equivalent discharge replications. Organelle ultrastructure and protein localization alone do not establish a causal release pathway. Separate assembly, movement, triggering, extrusion, attachment and ingestion before adding graph edges. A protein mechanism needs direct functional evidence and taxon-paired accessions; sequence features alone cannot provide that support. Mechanism is deferred, not claimed absent.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added kinetocyst discharge with two primary DOI citations and a primary conference abstract, source-checked snippets and explicit access limits. Ignored-and-hidden main/worktree/open-PR reservation checks support 000687 and v563 block 1064000-1064099. Historical mucocyst scope, exocytosis placement, canonical exemplars and protein mechanism remain unresolved. Existing records unchanged. Timestamp records the observed UTC curation decision.

Recorded curation sessions

  • · codex
    • CREATE — Add source-bounded kinetocyst discharge

      Created traitmech:000687 with two primary DOI citations and a primary conference abstract; retained historical mucocyst and exocytosis scope questions, omitted unresolved canonical examples and molecular graphs, and reserved METPO:1064000 in proposal v563. No existing trait changed.

    Read this curation session