Millepora complanata is a cnidarian widely distributed in the coral reefs of the Mexican Caribbean.

We report here the first-characterized cnidarian opsins.

Invited technology speakers showcased the power of microfluidics and single-cell transcriptomics and demonstrated their application in cnidarian models.

Recent studies have shown that short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) can induce gene-specific knockdowns in two cnidarian species.

The development of a multicellular, spore forming organism, from single cells does not correlate to any bilaterian or cnidarian species.

The most diverse marine ecosystems, coral reefs, depend upon a functional symbiosis between a cnidarian animal host (the coral) and intracellular photosynthetic dinoflagellate algae.

Indeed, cnidarians are considered as the largest phylum of generally toxic animals.

Cnidarian toxic products, particularly peptide toxins, constitute a promising target for biomedicine research.

This suggests a degree of partner specificity that may limit the adaptive potential of certain cnidarians to increased ocean warming.

In Cnidarians, cnidoblast cells contain organelles called cnidocysts, which are believed to be the product of an extremely complex regulated secretory pathway.

This suggests that free-living Symbiodiniaceae may provide a supply of potentially "new" thermotolerant strains to cnidarians following a bleaching event.

The adaptive bleaching hypothesis postulates that cnidarians that can form a stable symbiosis with thermotolerant Symbiodiniaceae strains may cope better with increasing seawater temperatures.

The ability of some symbiotic cnidarians to resist and better withstand stress factors that cause bleaching is a trait that is receiving increased attention.

The lack of a coordination is consistent with previous work on many cnidarians where coordination between actively pulsing polyps and medusa has not been observed.

Coordinated pulsing has not been observed in many cnidarians (jellyfish, anemones, corals), as is the case for the xeniid corals considered in our corresponding paper.

The 2018 Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting (Cnidofest) was held September 6-9th at the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, FL.