Meeting Abstract
Aiptasia pallida is a species of anemone that lives on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts of North America. Like many cnidarians, A. pallida anemones harbor intracellular, mutualistic dinoflagellates that provide photosynthetically derived organic compounds to the host in return for inorganic nutrients. Unlike many cnidarians, A. pallida can survive without its symbionts in an aposymbiotic state. We recently found that aposymbiotic anemones typically fail to develop gonads or have smaller gonads than symbiotic anemones, suggesting that loss of symbionts constrains sexual reproductive function of the host. The purpose of this study was to evaluate possible non-nutritive mechanisms underlying this finding by exposing aposymbiotic anemones to a variety of phytochemicals for two, 28-day gametogenic cycles. At the end of the second cycle, anemones were anesthetized, fixed in seawater-buffered formalin, embedded in paraffin wax, and sectioned. Serial sections were then alternately stained using either a standard hematoxylin and eosin stain or a modified Masson trichrome stain, and gonad size was measured. Differences in gonad development induced by phytochemical treatment will be discussed.
