Trends and Gaps in Scientific Production on Freshwater Sponges

Cajaíba

et al. 2021

RICA

In light of the expansion of deforestation in the Amazon and its importance for the balance and maintenance of essential conditions for human well-being, research is required to serve as a basis for decision-making regarding the preservation and recovery of Amazonian ecosystems. Considering the difficulty of studying the entire biodiversity of an ecosystem, research has been focused on key groups that can provide reliable and effective ecological information. Among the several existing species that are effective for such studies, ants deserve special attention because of their great ecological importance regarding the performance of key functions, in addition to being sensitive to environmental changes. To synthesize the information available in the literature, this paper presents a bibliographic review of the articles published on ants in the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 177 articles that covered a period of 52 years were found, with a significant increase in publications since the 2000s. Noticeably, there were a large number of studies based in the states of Amazonas and Pará, mainly near the capitals, which emphasizes the need to significantly expand the research collection areas. Most articles were published in the area of ecology, mainly concerning ecological interactions. Despite the advances in studies concerning Amazonian ants, there is still a lack of standardization regarding the sampling methods. In addition, there is a lack of studies that address the functional diversity of this group, which limits our understanding of the ecosystem services that are being lost owing to anthropogenic activities in natural ecosystems.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis of the current state of ant knowledge in the Brazilian Amazon: a review

Cajaíba

et al. 2021

RICA

“…Microorganisms also play an important role in shaping the chemical space of the sponge holobiont [ 5 , 6 ]. However, freshwater sponges and their associated microbiomes remain relatively understudied [ 7 – 10 ]. In the Great Lakes and neighboring regions, freshwater sponge distribution and diversity has been documented since the late nineteenth century [ 11 – 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between bacterial phylotype and specialized metabolite production in the culturable microbiome of two freshwater sponges

Clark

Hernández

Mullowney

et al. 2022

ISME Communications

Microbial drug discovery programs rely heavily on accessing bacterial diversity from the environment to acquire new specialized metabolite (SM) lead compounds for the therapeutic pipeline. Therefore, knowledge of how commonly culturable bacterial taxa are distributed in nature, in addition to the degree of variation of SM production within those taxa, is critical to informing these front-end discovery efforts and making the overall sample collection and bacterial library creation process more efficient. In the current study, we employed MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and the bioinformatics pipeline IDBac to analyze diversity within phylotype groupings and SM profiles of hundreds of bacterial isolates from two Eunapius fragilis freshwater sponges, collected 1.5 km apart. We demonstrated that within two sponge samples of the same species, the culturable bacterial populations contained significant overlap in approximate genus-level phylotypes but mostly nonoverlapping populations of isolates when grouped lower than the level of genus. Further, correlations between bacterial phylotype and SM production varied at the species level and below, suggesting SM distribution within bacterial taxa must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. Our results suggest that two E. fragilis freshwater sponges collected in similar environments can exhibit large culturable diversity on a species-level scale, thus researchers should scrutinize the isolates with analyses that take both phylogeny and SM production into account to optimize the chemical space entering into a downstream bacterial library.

Freshwater sponges overgrow the invasive golden mussel

Fortunato

Figueira

2022

Mar. Freshw. Res.

The golden mussel Limnoperna fortunei is one of the top three invasive animals in Brazil. It is widely distributed in South America, changing the whole environment, and causing exorbitant expenses for hydroelectric power plants (HPPs). The aim of this report is to record freshwater sponges as a natural enemy of the invasive mussel in the Upper Paraná River. Specimens of six native sponge species were observed overgrowing the L. fortunei in SCUBA dives conducted in three HPP reservoirs. This type of competitive relationship is poorly understood in South America, but it is similar to previous reports of freshwater sponges around the world interacting with other invasive mussels, such as zebra and quagga mussels. Further studies must explore defence mechanisms of both groups using in situ and laboratory-controlled experiments and identify metabolites expressed to understand the dynamics of the ecological interaction.