Surprising findings on the development of sea anemones suggest that a predatory lifestyle molded their evolution and had a significant impact on the origin of their nervous system. The researchers were able to show that the young life stages (larvae) of the small sea anemone Aiptasia actively feed on living prey and are not dependent on algae. To capture its prey, the anemone larvae use specialized stinging cells and a simple neuronal network.
Were the first animals predators or filter feeders like the sponges living in today's oceans? And what role did symbiosis with algae play, as with reef-building corals? Surprising findings by a research group led by Prof. Dr Thomas W. Holstein of Heidelberg University on the development of sea anemones suggest that a predatory lifestyle moulded their evolution and had a significant impact on the origin of their nervous system.
In the early embryonic development of multicellular organisms, gastrulation plays a key role."In its simplest form, the gastrula develops from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, forming a larval stage with gut and mouth; imagine pushing a ball inwards at one side. All animals pass through this gastrula stage, which could also have existed at the beginning of animal evolution," explains Prof.
The Aiptasia sea anemone is a model system for research on endosymbiosis in corals and other cnidarians."Corals live in nutrient-poor waters and as larvae or young polyps, take up symbiotic algae cells. In Aiptasia, however, this process is important for adults but does not lead to growth and settlement of the larvae, suggesting that nutrition is a critical step in closing the life cycle," states Thomas Holstein.
The larvae increase continually and rapidly in size, followed by settlement on the substrate and metamorphosis into primary polyps."In this way, we were able to grow mature polyps as well as their descendants for the first time," explains Ira Mägele.
As Prof. Holstein underscores, the data obtained paint a new picture of the predatory lifestyle as a primary characteristic of the cnidarian gastrula. Evolutionary theorist Ernst Haeckel first posed the"gastrula hypothesis.""But Haeckel's hypothetical gastrula was a particle-filtering life form, like sponges. In contrast, the predatory gastrula of Aiptasia and other cnidarians possess specialised stinging cells used for capturing prey.
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