Sex, polyps, and medusae: Determination and maintenance of sex in cnidarians

Abstract

Mechanisms of sex determination vary greatly among animals. Here we survey what is known in Cnidaria, the clade that forms the sister group to Bilateria and shows a broad array of sexual strategies and sexual plasticity. This observed diversity makes Cnidaria a well-suited taxon for the study of the evolution of sex determination, as closely related species can have different mechanisms, which allows for comparative studies. In this review, we survey the extensive descriptive data on sexual systems (e.g., gonochorism and hermaphroditism) and the plasticity of sex in various cnidarian taxa. Within Cnidaria, hydrozoans (e.g., Hydra, Hydractinia, and Clytia) are the best understood in regard to mechanistic determination and maintenance of sex, largely due to the discovery of the interstitial stem cells, which give rise to the germ cells. We also present a hypothesis for the evolution of the various sexual systems that are observed in Hydra. Finally, given the rapid advances in genome sequencing and editing, several exciting possible future directions for increasing our understanding of sex determination mechanisms in cnidarians are discussed. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 84: 105-119, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.