Actinobacteria exclusively within the sub-class Acidimicrobidae were shown by 16S rDNA community analysis to be major components of the bacterial community associated with two sponge species in the genus Xestospongia. Four groups of Actinobacteria were identified in Xestospongia spp., with three of these four groups being found in both Xestospongia muta from Key Largo, Florida and Xestospongia testudinaria from Manado, Indonesia. This suggests that these groups are true symbionts in these sponges and may play a common role in both the Pacific and Atlantic sponge species. The fourth group was found only in X. testudinaria and was a novel assemblage distantly related to any previously sequenced actinobacterial clones. The only actinobacteria that were obtained in initial culturing attempts were Gordonia, Micrococcus and Brachybacterium spp., none of which were represented in the clone libraries. The closest cultured actinobacteria to all the Acidimicrobidae clones from Xestospongia spp. are 'Microthrix parvicella' and Acidimicrobium spp. Xestospongia spp. can now be targeted as source material from which to culture novel Acidimicrobidae to investigate their potential as producers of bioactive compounds. Isolation of sponge-associated Acidimicrobidae will also make it possible to elucidate their role as sponge symbionts.

The giant barrel sponges Xestospongia muta and Xestospongia testudinaria are ubiquitous in tropical reefs of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, respectively. They are key species in their respective environments and are hosts to diverse assemblages of bacteria. These two closely related sponges from different oceans provide a unique opportunity to examine the evolution of sponge-associated bacterial communities. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene sequences from X. muta and X. testudinaria showed little divergence between the two species. A detailed analysis of the bacterial communities associated with these sponges, comprising over 900 full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences, revealed remarkable similarity in the bacterial communities of the two species. Both sponge-associated communities include sequences found only in the two Xestospongia species, as well as sequences found also in other sponge species and are dominated by three bacterial groups, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria. While these groups consistently dominate the bacterial communities revealed by 16S rRNA gene-based analysis of sponge-associated bacteria, the depth of sequencing undertaken in this study revealed clades of bacteria specifically associated with each of the two Xestospongia species, and also with the genus Xestospongia, that have not been found associated with other sponge species or other ecosystems. This study, comparing the bacterial communities associated with closely related but geographically distant sponge hosts, gives new insight into the intimate relationships between marine sponges and some of their bacterial symbionts.Marine sponges (phylum Porifera) are ancient metazoans with a fossil record dating back over 600 million years, but the duration of the sponge-bacterium association is less well documented. Sponges actively pump seawater through pores and channels to obtain food consisting mainly of microbes filtered from the surrounding seawater, but they have no true organs or circulatory, nervous, or digestive systems. Bacterial symbionts may play roles in digestion, waste removal, and chemical defense for the sponge host (38). We use the terms "symbiont" and "symbiosis" in the same sense as Taylor et al. (38) and consistent with the original definition of de Bary to refer to two or more organisms consistently found living together for a long period without any implication that the organisms benefit or harm each other.Many sponges contain chemical compounds with bioactive properties, several of which are promising as pharmaceutical leads, and sponge-associated microorganisms are of interest due to their potential role in producing some of these compounds (10). Studies of the bacteria associated with marine sponges have revealed novel bacterial groups, such as the candidate phylum "Poribacteria" (6, 16), as well as ubiquitous symbionts found in many different sponges, including the NW001-like Alphaproteobacteria (4, 46). Sponge-microbe associations provide a model for studying ancient, complex symbioses ...

The bacterial communities of sponges have been studied using molecular techniques as well as culture-based techniques, but the communities described by these two methods are remarkably distinct. Culture-based methods describe communities dominated by Proteobacteria, and Actinomycetes while molecular methods describe communities dominated by predominantly uncultivated groups such as the Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Acidimicrobidae. In this study, we used a wide range of culture media to increase the diversity of cultivable bacteria from the closely related giant barrel sponges, Xestospongia muta collected from the Florida Keys, Atlantic Ocean and Xestospongia testudinaria, collected from Indonesia, Pacific Ocean. Over 400 pure cultures were isolated and identified from X. muta and X. testudinaria and over 90 bacterial species were represented. Over 16,000 pyrosequences were analyzed and assigned to 976 OTUs. We employed both cultured-based methods and pyrosequencing to look for patterns of overlap between the culturable and molecular communities. Only one OTU was found in both the molecular and culturable communities, revealing limitations inherent in both approaches.