Why do cubomedusae have only four swim pacemakers?

Abstract

The classic view of swimming control in scyphozoan and cubozoan jellyfish involves a diffuse motor nerve net activated by multiple pacemaker sites that interact in a simple resetting hierarchy. Earlier modeling studies of jellyfish swimming, utilizing resetting linkages of multiple pacemakers, indicated that increases in pacemaker number were correlated with increases in the rate and regularity of network activity. We conducted a similar study using the cubozoan jellyfish Carybdea marsupialis, concentrating not only on the adaptive features of multiple pacemaker networks but also on the mechanism of pacemaker interaction. The best fit for our experimental data is a model in which pacemakers express a degree of independence. Thus, our results challenge the idea that pacemaker interactions in scyphozoan and cubozoan medusae are based on a strict resetting hierarchy. Furthermore, our data suggest that the combination of semi-independent linkage of pacemakers with the small pacemaker number characteristic of cubomedusae is important in (i) maintaining a biphasic modulatory capability in the swimming system, and (ii) allowing behaviorally appropriate directional responses to asymmetrical sensory inputs in the radially arranged jellyfish nervous system.