First report of a precocious form of strobilation in a jellyfish, the South American Pacific sea nettle Chrysaora plocamia

Campos, Leonardo; González, Karina; Ceh, Janja

doi:10.1007/s12526-020-01106-3

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This same life-history bet-hedging strategy likely allows the cnidarian medusae to flourish in modern oceans despite human-mediated climate alterations, radical changes in food-web structure and other coastal ocean structural changes. This is exemplified by recent observations of unusual developmental reversals of young medusae as they transform directly back into the sessile stage or polyps transforming into cysts and then excyst and reproduce asexually during unfavourable seasonal conditions 25 , 26 . The plasticity permitted by this spectrum of responses provides an evolutionary buffer against sudden and unexpected environmental shifts 21 that might make a single strategy unfavourable across a range of conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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“Indirect development” increases reproductive plasticity and contributes to the success of scyphozoan jellyfish in the oceans

D’Ambra

Merquiol

Graham

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have been looking for the key(s) to the success of scyphomedusae through their long evolutionary history in multiple habitats. Their ability to generate young medusae (ephyrae) via two distinct reproductive strategies, strobilation or direct development from planula into ephyra without a polyp stage, has been a potential explanation. In addition to these reproductive modes, here we provide evidence of a third ephyral production which has been rarely observed and often confused with direct development from planula into ephyra. Planulae of Aurelia relicta Scorrano et al. 2017 and Cotylorhiza tuberculata (Macri 1778) settled and formed fully-grown polyps which transformed into ephyrae within several days. In distinction to monodisk strobilation, the basal polyp of indirect development was merely a non-tentaculate stalk that dissolved shortly after detachment of the ephyra. We provide a fully detailed description of this variant that increases reproductive plasticity within scyphozoan life cycles and is different than either true direct development or the monodisk strobilation. Our observations of this pattern in co-occurrence with mono- and polydisk strobilation in Aurelia spp. suggest that this reproductive mode may be crucial for the survival of some scyphozoan populations within the frame of a bet-hedging strategy and contribute to their long evolutionary success throughout the varied conditions of past and future oceans.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Variations within the scyphozoan reproductive cycle may be widespread and affect population survival. This is particularly true for strobilation strategies 25 , 26 . However, the clarity of scyphozoan reproduction patterns is highly variable in nomenclature surrounding reproduction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%