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Cassiopea and Its Zooxanthellae

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The Cnidaria, Past, Present and Future

Abstract

As many cnidarians, the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea spec. lives in an obligate symbiosis with its zooxanthellae: Dinoflagellates of the genus Symbiodinium. The symbiosis seems mutual and both partners have adapted to suit the partner’s needs. Despite the very close co-operation the zooxanthellae are not transmitted vertically but are taken up from the water column during the polyp stage. Polyps seem flexible which clades to internalize and usually take up all clades available but medusae seem much more restrictive and as far as we know only co-operate with a single Symbiodinium clade (the clade however can vary between individuals). The Cassiopea-symbiont interaction is especially interesting for researchers as Cassiopea occurs in shallow lagoon waters meaning a quite stressful environment with high temperatures and high levels of irradiation as well as potentially drastic changes in salinity and sedimentation rates. In other cnidarian-zooxanthellae partnerships these conditions would lead to a severe disturbance of the symbiosis often ultimately leading to the death of the holobiont (bleaching). The Cassiopea/Symbiodinium interaction, however, is an example of a successful co-operation under stressful environmental conditions and therefore interesting also in the context of climate change. This chapter summarizes our knowledge of the symbiosis of Cassiopea and its zooxanthellae focusing on uptake and choice of symbiosis partners by Cassiopea as well as the adaptations making the co-operation possible.

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  1. Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse 150, 44780, Bochum, Germany

    Kathrin P. Lampert

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Correspondence to Kathrin P. Lampert .

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  1. Biological, Geological and Env Scie, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Stefano Goffredo

  2. Fac. Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Zvy Dubinsky

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Lampert, K.P. (2016). Cassiopea and Its Zooxanthellae. In: Goffredo, S., Dubinsky, Z. (eds) The Cnidaria, Past, Present and Future. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31305-4_26

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