Life Cycle Reversal in Aurelia sp.1 (Cnidaria,Scyphozoa) |
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| Authors: | Jinru He Lianming Zheng Wenjing Zhang Yuanshao Lin |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Marine Biodiversity and Global Change Research Center (MBiGC), Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.; 2. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Coastal Ecology and Environmental Studies (CEES), Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.; 3. College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.; 4. Zhejiang Provincial Zhoushan Marine Ecological Environmental Monitoring Station, Zhoushan, China.; UC Irvine, UNITED STATES, |
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| Abstract: | The genus Aurelia is one of the major contributors to jellyfish blooms in coastal waters, possibly due in part to hydroclimatic and anthropogenic causes, as well as their highly adaptive reproductive traits. Despite the wide plasticity of cnidarian life cycles, especially those recognized in certain Hydroza species, the known modifications of Aurelia life history were mostly restricted to its polyp stage. In this study, we document the formation of polyps directly from the ectoderm of degenerating juvenile medusae, cell masses from medusa tissue fragments, and subumbrella of living medusae. This is the first evidence for back-transformation of sexually mature medusae into polyps in Aurelia sp.1. The resulting reconstruction of the schematic life cycle of Aurelia reveals the underestimated potential of life cycle reversal in scyphozoan medusae, with possible implications for biological and ecological studies. |
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