A comparison of microeukaryote communities inhabiting sponges and seawater in a Taiwanese coral reef system

Abstract

Purpose Assess microeukaryote community composition in seawater and sponge samples from Taiwanese coral reefs. Methods In the present study, we used Illumina sequencing to explore the microeukaryote communities of seven biotopes (six sponge species and seawater) sampled in the Penghu archipelago of Taiwan. Result Microeukaryote communities were dominated by Dinoflagellates with Dinophyceae and Syndiniales well represented in all biotopes. Other abundant taxa included metazoa, red and green algae and Radiolaria. The only significant differences were a significantly higher relative abundance of Picobiliphyta and Stramenopiles_X in seawater and Metamonada in the sponge Acanthostylotella cornuta. There was also a significant difference in composition among biotopes with samples from sponges and seawater forming distinct clusters. There was, however, no congruence between prokaryote and microeukaryote community composition. After removing all OTUs < 100 sequences, more than 90% of remaining OTUs representing > 99.5% of sequences were shared between sponge and seawater samples. Conclusion This data in the present study would appear to suggest that marine microeukaryote communities in sponges are largely derived from the surrounding seawater. Abundant OTUs were also related to organisms previously retrieved from seawater. A number of these OTUs though had relatively low sequence similarity to organisms in GenBank suggesting that more research of the microeukaryote communities in the Penghu archipelago may yield novel organisms in this relatively unexplored area.

Geographical location and habitat predict variation in prokaryotic community composition of Suberites diversicolor

“…They inhabit a range of habitats from tropical to polar seas, shallow to deep waters and marine, brackish and freshwater environments (Ruetzler 2004). Sponges have been shown to house numerous microorganisms including Bacteria, Archaea, fungi and dinoflagellates (Lee et al 2011;He et al 2014;Cleary 2019). These microorganisms can make up to 35% of sponge biomass and have been shown to play key roles in the sponge metabolism, including carbon and nitrogen cycling and chemical defence (Webster et al 2010;Bolaños et al 2015).…”

Photosynthetic Sponge‐associated Eukaryotes in the Aegean Sea: A Culture‐dependent Approach

“…Sponge associations with photosynthetic eukaryotic microorganisms are not well established, far less known than their associations with prokaryotes (Cleary 2019;Pita et al 2018). The most frequent association among photosynthetic organisms and sponges occurs with cyanobacteria (Thacker and Freeman 2012) and appears to be as common in temperate areas as in tropical ones (Konstantinou et al 2018).…”

“…The most frequent association among photosynthetic organisms and sponges occurs with cyanobacteria (Thacker and Freeman 2012) and appears to be as common in temperate areas as in tropical ones (Konstantinou et al 2018). Although sponge-specific cyanobacterial symbionts, such as Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum and Oscillatoria spongeliae, are known (Thacker and Freeman 2012), up to date no clear host-or genus-specific patterns have been discerned for photosynthetic eukaryotes (Cleary 2019;de Mares et al 2017). Only in some cases, diatoms and dinoflagellates have fulfilled the criteria for sponge-specific clusters (Simister et al 2012).…”

“…Only in some cases, diatoms and dinoflagellates have fulfilled the criteria for sponge-specific clusters (Simister et al 2012). Recently, approaches based on 16S rRNA-based metagenomic data retrieved abundant and diverse sponge- associated phototrophic microeukaryotic communities suggesting that novel taxa remain to be discovered (Cleary 2019;de Mares et al 2017;He et al 2014). However, next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are providing little understanding on sponge-associated microbial diversity below the phylum level.…”

“…In terms of diversity, the photosynthetic microalgal communities identified up to date include dinoflagellates (Cleary 2019), chlorophytes (Baulina et al 2016), cryptophytes (Li et al 2014), diatoms (Simister et al 2012), and cercozoans (Kersken et al 2014). Sponge associations involving macroalgae include several genera of the Rhodophyta class Florideophyceae, such as Jania, Amphiroa, Ceratodictyon, and Acrochaetium, found on and inside spongin fibers (Di Camillo et al 2017;R€ utzler 1990).…”