Unusual pattern of embryogenesis of Caryophyllia inornata (scleractinia, caryophylliidae) in the mediterranean sea: Maybe agamic reproduction?

Abstract

While knowledge of the reproductive biology of tropical scleractinian corals is extensive, information from temperate zones is limited. The aim of this study is to describe the reproductive biology of Caryophyllia inornata, a temperate species, and to increase the understanding of the reproductive strategies of Mediterranean corals. Samples of C. inornata were collected during SCUBA surveys at Elba island. Sexually active individuals displayed either male or female germ cells, showing a gonochoric sexuality. C. inornata exhibited an unusual pattern of embryogenesis. Embryos appeared throughout the whole year in males and in sexually inactive individuals, and they did not show a seasonal pattern of development, as usually expected for sexual reproduction. This observation suggests the possibility of asexual origin. These embryogenetic sexually inactive individuals were larger in size than the embryogenetic sexually active ones, and they might be senile polyps that preserve the ability to produce embryos only by agamic reproduction. J. Morphol. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Inferred calcification rate of a temperate azooxanthellate caryophylliid coral along a wide latitudinal gradient

“…At each site, samples were collected using transects that consisted of 4-8 square patches of 0.1 m 2 each, 3 m apart (site and number of patches: Genova: n = 4; Calafuria: n = 8; Elba: n = 4; Palinuro: n = 6; Scilla: n = 6; and Pantelleria: n = 7). The sampling was performed within a depth range (11-16 m) known to have high population density and where the reproductive biology (Goffredo et al 2012a), biometry and abundance (Caroselli et al 2015), and growth and population demography have been studied (Caroselli et al 2016). Patches were sampled on the vault of crevices, except at the Elba site, where samples were collected under the wings of a sunken plane wreck.…”

“…Caryophyllia inornata colonizes vaults of caves and crevices, walls and wrecks from the surface to 100 m depth, and it can be a very common species in some overhangs (Zibrowius 1980). It is a gonochoric brooding species and has unusual embryogenesis with possible agamic production of embryos (Goffredo et al 2012a). Sexual maturity is reached at a size of *6.1 mm (Marchini et al 2015), corresponding to *7-yr-old polyps.…”

Reproductive Efficiency of a Mediterranean Endemic Zooxanthellate Coral Decreases with Increasing Temperature along a Wide Latitudinal Gradient

“…The maximum and minimum diameters of oocytes in nucleated sections and spermaries were measured and the presence of embryos in the coelenteric cavity was recorded. Spermaries were classified into five developmental stages in accordance with earlier studies on gametogenesis in scleractinians [19], [31], [32].…”

Restructuring the Traditional Suborders in the Order Scleractinia Based on Embryogenetic Morphological Characteristics

“…In Fig. 6B of Goffredo et al (2012), they describe the early embryos, however, the surface of embryos, which they show, is very smooth and no cellularization was observed from the picture. The embryos seem to be at the early gametogenesis stage, or even if they are embryos as they describe, the early cleavage stage including morula has already finished.…”

“…Goffredo et al (2012) reported on the embryogenesis of Caryophyllia, and they described the embryo has no blastocoel and gastrulation occurs by delamination. However, the early cleavage stages, especially between the morula stage to the blastula, which are the important stages to find the blastocoel, are not shown in their paper.…”