ow to build single-celled cnidarians with worm-like motility: Lessons from Myxozo

Author(s)

Adriano, Edson A. ^{[1, 2]} ; Zatti, Suellen A. ^[3] ; Okamura, Beth ^[4]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Dept Anim Biol, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Diadema, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Fac Anim Sci & Food Engn, Dept Vet Med, Pirassununga, SP - Brazil

^[4] Nat Hist Museum, Dept Life Sci, London - England

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Journal of Anatomy; v. 240, n. 3 OCT 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Metazoans with worm-like morphologies across diverse and disparate groups typically demonstrate motility generated by hydrostatic skeletons involving tissue layers (muscles and epithelia). Here we present representative morphological, behavioural and molecular data for parasitic cnidarians (myxozoans) that demonstrate unprecedented variation in form and function, developing as cellular hydrostats. Motile elongate plasmodia characterise a remarkable radiation of species in the genus Ceratomyxa. The vermiform plasmodia inhabit gall bladders of a range of South American freshwater fish and exhibit undulatory motility reminiscent of nematodes but achieved at the cellular level. Collective insights from ultrastructure, confocal and light microscopy along with videos depicting movements highlight key features that we propose explain the unique motility of the plasmodia. These features include cytoskeletal elements (net forming microfilaments and microtubules), a large internal vacuole, a relatively rigid outer glycocalyx and peripherally arranged mitochondria. These constituents provide collective evidence for repurposing of the cnidarian epitheliomuscular cell to support worm-like motility at the cellular level. The apparent restriction of vermiform ceratomyxids to South American freshwaters suggests an origination via Cretaceous or Miocene marine transgressions and subsequent radiation. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/01425-9 - Diversity of Amazonian bryozoans: possible hosts of Myixozoa of the class Malacosporea
• Grantee: Edson Aparecido Adriano
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• FAPESP's process: 15/19463-6 - Prospecting myxozoans of Malacosporea class in Brazil
• Grantee: Edson Aparecido Adriano
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• FAPESP's process: 19/17427-3 - Multiple-omics profiling to reveal tropical myxozoan biodiversity in freshwater fish hosts from the Amazon Basin
• Grantee: Edson Aparecido Adriano
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 18/19285-9 - Systematics, host-parasite interaction and population genetic studies of myxozoans (Cnidaria: Myxozoa) parasites of fish of the genus Plagioscion (Perciformes, Sciaenidae)
• Grantee: Suellen Aparecida Zatti
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 16/22047-7 - Myxosporean parasites of commercially important Perciformes fish (Cichlaspp. and Plagioscion spp.) in the Amazon Basin
• Grantee: Edson Aparecido Adriano
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants