Figure 1.
Field populations of Aiptasia diaphana forming a dense “carpet” on anchor rigs of an abandoned net pen fish farm 1.8 km offshore.
Figure 2.
Anatomy and histology of gonads of Aiptasia diaphana.
A) A dissected anemone illustrating the morphology of the gonads along the mesenteries (m) of the polyp. B) Histological section of a female gonad showing well developed oocytes with visible germinal vesicles and nucleoli. C) Histological section of a male gonad showing well developed spermaries. D) Histological section of a hermaphrodite gonad showing well developed oocytes (o) alongside interspersed spermaries (s) at various stages of development. Bar corresponds to 200 µm in B and to 100 µm C and in D.
Table 1.
Sex of ramets derived from six different genets of known sex.
Figure 3.
Development of self-fertilized gametes of the anemone Aiptasia diaphana (scale bars = 10 µm).
(a) Released non fertilized oocyte (SEM). (b) late cleavage stage showing asynchronous “chaotic” cleavage (SEM). (c) Blastula from animal pole perspective, note small micromeres. (c') Blastula from the vegetal pole perspective, showing large yolky macromeres at the vegetal pole (SEM). (d) Prawn chip stage. (e) Gastrula. The blastopore is marked by an arrow. (SEM). (f) Swimming planula, nematocysts marked by arrowhead (light micrograph).
Figure 4.
Modular culture apparatus [43].
The culture cell (4) is placed within a sedimentation chamber (6) which in turn is encompassed by a water jacket (8). A light source (18) is positioned above the culture cell. A pump (20) is fixed to a wall in the sedimentation chamber (6) and connected to the culture cell inlet port (15). Sediment is drained from the chamber via a waste outlet (22) connected to the bottom of the chamber. Culture temperature is controlled by the water jacket (8), using a water chiller (24) and a thermostat regulated heater (26). The legs (10) of the culture tank stand on the tank's bottom (12), and water outlets (14) are interspersed around the top of the cell in the water jacket tank (16). Scale bar = 20 cm.