Cnidarians: Eat, Pray, Love

In this talk I will present some of the current knowledge regarding the cnidarian endogenous biological clock. During the last few years our team has examined the evidence from behavioral, physiological, molecular, and evolutionary perspectives regarding the role of the clock machinery in some key cnidarians such as symbiotic corals, Aiptasia and Nematosella vectensis, an emerging model organism. Our research is mainly focused on symbiotic corals. They are an interesting model to study the complexities and evolution of the metazoan biological clock. A deeper understanding of this complex issue can help explain coral mass spawning, and how symbiotic organisms measure time and synchronize themselves to their environmental conditions. Our main goal is understanding how two pacemakers, the host and the symbiont, function together in one organism and what is the cross-talk in this holobiont system.