Cnidofest 2018: the future is bright for cnidarian research

EvoDevo (2019) 10:20 He et al. EvoDevo https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-019-0134-5 Open Access MEETING REPORT Cnidofest 2018: the future is bright for cnidarian research Shuonan He1, Juris A. Grasis2, Matthew L. Nicotra3,4,5, Celina E. Juliano6 and Christine E. Schnitzler7,8* Abstract The 2018 Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting (Cnidofest) was held September 6–9th at the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, FL. Cnidofest 2018, which built upon the momentum of Hydroidfest 2016, brought together research communities working on a broad spectrum of cnidarian organisms from North America and around the world. Meeting talks covered diverse aspects of cnidarian biology, with sessions focused on genomics, development, neurobiology, immunology, symbiosis, ecology, and evolution. In addition to interesting biology, Cnidofest also emphasized the advancement of modern research techniques. Invited technology speakers showcased the power of microfluidics and single-cell transcriptomics and demonstrated their application in cnidarian models. In this report, we provide an overview of the exciting research that was presented at the meeting and discuss opportunities for future research. Keywords: Cnidarians, Hydra, Hydractinia, Nematostella, Aiptasia, Cassiopeia Introduction Cnidaria (corals, jellyfish, sea anemones, and hydroids) is a phylum of aquatic animals, unified by the presence of specialized stinging cells called cnidocytes [1]. These beautiful and exotic creatures have fascinated biologists since the dawn of experimental biology [2, 3]. Their phylogenic position as the sister group to Bilateria makes them key to addressing long-standing questions regarding animal relationships and evolution [4–7]. Until recently, cnidarian research has been hindered by the lack of advanced molecular and genetic approaches. However, rapidly advancing technologies, including genome sequencing and gene-editing tools, are now being applied to many cnidarian species. Large collections of genomic and transcriptomic data of diverse cnidarian species have now been generated [8–12] and single-cell sequencing technologies are deepening our understanding of cnidarian development and evolution [13, 14]. These data, in combination with new gene-editing capabilities [15–17], are opening new experimental avenues and enabling the *Correspondence: 7 Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, St. Augustine, FL 32080, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article use of many different cnidarians to address a myriad of biological questions. Cnidofest 2018 (http://www.cnidarianmodelmeetin g.org) was organized to foster the expansion of the cnidarian research community and emphasize the application of modern molecular tools to both classic and emerging cnidarian models. As a successor to the Hydroidfest 2016 meeting [18], which emphasized hydrozoan research, Cnidofest 2018 widened its focus to include representatives from many cnidarian taxa. Two established model organisms, Hydra and Nematostella, appeared in approximately 60% of the abstracts. However, the overall meeting agenda was diverse, with 11 cnidarian species featured during 44 oral presentation sessions and a total of 22 species represented by the 85 submitted abstracts. Nearly all major cnidarian clades were represented (Fig. 1), including traditionally underrepresented groups, such as Cubozoa, Staurozoa, and Myxozoa. Newly sequenced genomes and transcriptomes are giving these lesser known, yet fascinating animals a significant boost. A major goal of the Cnidofest 2018 meeting was to contribute to the career development of trainees in the cnidarian research community. With funding support from the National Science Foundation and the © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. He et al. EvoDevo (2019) 10:20 Page 2 of 11 the future is bright. In this report, we provide an overview of the exciting research presented at Cnidofest 2018. Fig. 1 Cnidarian model systems represented at Cnidofest. a A hermaphroditic green Hydra polyp bearing a testes and an egg (courtesy of Stefan Siebert). b Gastrozooids and gonozooids of a Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus colony (courtesy of Steven Sanders). c Nematostella vectensis adult polyp (courtesy of Shuonan He). d The banded tube-dwelling anemone, Isarachnanthus nocturnes (courtesy of Sérgio Stampar). e A Cordylophora colony growing on eelgrass (courtesy of Nadine Folino Rorem and E. Sally Chang). f Medusa of Cassiopea spp. (courtesy of Casandra Newkirk) University of Florida Office of Research, registration fees were waived for nearly all trainees and travel allowances were awarded to 16 domestic and 5 international trainees. This allowed for trainees to make up nearly 70% of the total attendance, and 68% of the oral presentations (30/44) were given by students and postdocs. The environment provided at Cnidofest enabled students and postdocs to showcase their work and interact directly with established researchers in this small, yet vibrant community. With these fantastic young scientists, new species, new technologies, and new ideas, the cnidarian research community is growing quickly and Keynote address: cnidarian symbionts and the fate of coral reefs Virginia Weis (Oregon State University) is an inspiring figure in the cnidarian research community. For more than two decades, she has pioneered and promoted coral symbiosis studies using Aiptasia, which is colonized by dinoflagellates from the family Symbiodiniaceae [19], as a model organism. Work from her lab and her collaborators successfully pushed forward our understanding of host–symbiont interactions on the molecular and cellular level. As the keynote speaker of Cnidofest 2018, Weis shared with the audience highlights covering 22 years of research done by her laboratory, her success in promoting and connecting the Aiptasia community, her vision of the future of symbiosis research, and her concern over global warming and the accelerating rate of coral extinction. Weis emphasized the importance of translating findings in basic research into valuable tools for conservation biology. The lectin/glycan interaction and the complement pathway were identified as key players mediating host–symbiont recognition; disruption of these pathways blocks symbiont colonization in Aiptasia larvae. Based on these discoveries, Weis and her (...truncated)