Non-invasive investigation of the morphology and optical properties of the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea with optical coherence tomography

The jellyfish Cassiopea largely cover their organic carbon demand via photosynthates produced by their microalgal endosymbionts, but how holobiont morphology and optical properties affect the light microclimate and symbiont photosynthesis in Cassiopea remain unexplored. Here, we use optical coherence tomography (OCT) to study the morphology of live Cassiopea medusae at high spatial resolution. We include detailed 3D reconstructions of external micromorphology, and show the spatial distribution of endosymbionts clustered in amoebocytes and white granules in the bell tissue. Furthermore, we use OCT data to extract inherent optical properties from light scattering white granules in Cassiopea and show that white granules enhance local light availability for symbionts in close proximity. Individual granules had a scattering coefficient of s = 200-300 cm-1, and a scattering anisotropy factor of g = 0.7, while large tissue regions filled with white granules had a lower s = 40-100 cm-1, and g = 0.8-0.9. We combined OCT information with an isotopic labelling experiment to investigate the effect of enhanced light availability in whitish tissue regions. Algal symbionts located in whitish tissue exhibited significantly higher carbon fixation as compared to symbionts in anastomosing tissue (i.e., tissue without light scattering white granules). Our findings support previous suggestions that white granules in Cassiopea play an important role in the host modulation of the light-microenvironment.