We used several life history stages of Cassiopea sp. for telomerase
assay: aposymbiotic and symbiotic scyphistomae, asexual propagules,
ephyrae (newly budded medusae), and adult medusae. Two scyphistomae
of Cassiopea sp. were obtained from Enoshima Aquarium in 2001.
They were maintained in darkness at room temperature in our
laboratory and fed twice a week with freshly hatched Artemia nauplii.
A large number of polyps were produced asexually frompropagules that
were budded from scyphistomae. These propagules detached from the
scyphistomae, settled and metamorphosed into independent scyphistomae.
Cassiopea medusae (about 7–10 cm in diameter)were purchased
fromthe Izu Chuo Aqua Trading Co., Ltd. Themedusae contained gonads
though we did not determine the gonad maturation stage of the
medusae. Bigelow (1900) described that the smallest specimen of Cassiopea
xamachana found to contain eggs measured 6.5 cm in diameter