Host-specific assembly of sponge-associated prokaryotes at high taxonomic ranks

Abstract

Sponges (Porifera) are abundant and diverse members of benthic filter feeding communities in most marine ecosystems, from the deep sea to tropical reefs. A characteristic feature is the associated dense and diverse prokaryotic community present within the sponge mesohyl. Previous molecular genetic studies revealed the importance of host identity for the community composition of the sponge-associated microbiota. However, little is known whether sponge host-specific prokaryotic community patterns observed at 97% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity are consistent at high taxonomic ranks (from genus to phylum level). In the present study, we investigated the prokaryotic community structure and variation of 24 sponge specimens (seven taxa) and three seawater samples from Sweden. Results show that the resemblance of prokaryotic communities at different taxonomic ranks is consistent with patterns present at 97% operational taxonomic unit level.

Microbiota of the alien species Paraleucilla magna (Porifera, Calcarea) from the Southwestern Atlantic, and a comparison with that of other calcareous sponges

“…Data shown here indicate that P. magna is most likely a LMA sponge, as it presents a microbiota dominated by one phylum, represented by few and abundant OTUs. When a large number of sponges from the class Demospongiae were analyzed, researchers were not able to find a prokaryotic signature of the class, as the reported microbiota compositions were usually species-specific [51]. In order to investigate this pattern in the class Calcarea, we analyzed the available microbiota found for other species available in the SRA database.…”

Compositional and Quantitative Insights Into Bacterial and Archaeal Communities of South Pacific Deep-Sea Sponges (Demospongiae and Hexactinellida)

“…These prokaryotic communities show sponge species-specific patterns that differ in richness, diversity, and structure from the prokaryotic seawater communities. The composition of the sponge symbiont consortia is shaped by host taxonomy in that sponge species have species-specific prokaryotic communities (Pita et al, 2013;Easson and Thacker, 2014;Thomas et al, 2016;Steinert et al, 2017;Cárdenas et al, 2019). Machine learning provided evidence that the dichotomy between high microbial (HMA) and low microbial abundance (LMA) sponges is a main driver of the sponge-associated community patterns (Moitinho-Silva et al, 2017c).…”

“…Most sponge microbiome studies have focused on demosponges that were collected from shallow coastal sites in temperate, subtropical, and tropical sampling locations (e.g., Schmitt et al, 2012;Moitinho-Silva et al, 2014;Naim et al, 2014;Thomas et al, 2016;Steinert et al, 2017;Helber et al, 2019). Considering that the deep-sea is the largest, still relatively underexplored habitat on earth, comparably few studies have been conducted on sponges from remote deep-sea or cold-water locations (e.g., Jackson et al, 2013;Kennedy et al, 2014;Reveillaud et al, 2014;Borchert et al, 2017).…”

Ecological and biotechnological aspects of Aplysina-associated microorganisms

“…Despite methodological differences, the results from different approaches characterizing 16S rRNA gene profiles are highly reproducible, yielding detection differences only in low-abundance phyla such as Fusobacteria, Parcubacteria, PAUC34f, Hydrogenedentes and Saccharibacteria (Figure 2), some of which are part of the recently described candidate phyla radiation (Brown et al, 2015). These results are in accordance with other 16S rRNA gene based investigations, indicating that these methods are well established for molecular profiling of sponge microbiomes (Thomas et al, 2016;Chaib De Mares et al, 2017;Steinert et al, 2017;Dat et al, 2018). The vast majority of the abundant microbial taxa are detectable with both methods (overlap).…”