Аннотация:Strobilation is a process by which scyphozoan polyps produce ephyrae that develop into medusae. We aimed to study the ephyra formation in three cultures of Aurelia and three cultures of Cassiopea polyps with different geographic origin. To characterize gross-morphology, cell and tissue dynamics in the course of strobilation, we used methods of histology, SEM and CLSM.
We found that our polyps demonstrate three forms of strobilation (SF). We found that the SFs differ in the particular pattern of ephyra formation. We revealed that the set of developmental events as well as their morphogenetic mechanisms are independent of SF. However, the relative timing of these events strongly depends on the SF. Thus, evolutionary transformations of SFs can occur on the basis of heterochronic changes.