Analysis of the biomass composition of the demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica on Heron Island Reef, Australia.

Jabin Watson,Bernard Degnan,Jens Krömer,Sandie Degnan,Timothy Brennan

doi:10.3390/md12063733

Jabin Watson, Bernard Degnan + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/md12063733

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Abstract

Marine sponges are a potential source of important pharmaceutical drugs, the commercialisation of which is restricted by the difficulties of obtaining a sufficient and regular supply of biomass. One way to optimize commercial cell lines for production is the in-depth characterization and target identification through genome scale metabolic modeling and flux analysis. By applying these tools to a sponge, we hope to gain insights into how biomass is formed. We chose Amphimedon queenslandica as it has an assembled and annotated genome, a prerequisite for genome scale modeling. The first stepping stone on the way to metabolic flux analysis in a sponge holobiont, is the characterization of its biomass composition. In this study we quantified the macromolecular composition and investigated the variation between and within sponges of a single population. We found lipids and protein to be the most abundant macromolecules, while carbohydrates were the most variable. We also analysed the composition and abundance of the fatty acids and amino acids, the important building blocks required to synthesise the abundant macromolecule types, lipids, and protein. These data complement the extensive genomic information available for A. queenslandica and lay the basis for genome scale modelling and flux analysis.

Highlights

Marine sponges and their associated bacteria are prolific producers of secondary metabolites that are an important source of bioactive compounds with pharmacological potential
A. queenslandica individuals, all of which were collected from a single wild population in Shark Bay on Heron Island Reef, Australia
The most abundant macromolecule type was lipid with 0.1251 g/grams of dry sponge weight (gDW), followed by protein (0.0881 g/gDW), carbohydrate (0.0197 g/gDW), RNA (0.0021 g/gDW) and DNA (0.0003 g/gDW)

Summary

Introduction

Marine sponges and their associated bacteria are prolific producers of secondary metabolites that are an important source of bioactive compounds with pharmacological potential. More than 5000 compounds have been identified to date, including 355 new compounds reported in 2012 alone [1] Despite this enormous potential, approval for use as a therapeutic compound is scarce [2]. The lack of commercial development of sponge-derived compounds is attributed to both a biomass supply problem—no reliable method to culture either whole sponges or cells exists—and a lack of understanding of sponge-bacterial interactions. Together, these constraints limit the applicability of metabolic engineering approaches to microbial isolates or sponge cells for over-production of secondary metabolites. We need to understand how the sponge holobiont (the animal and its resident microbes) is able to grow; understanding how the central metabolic pathways contribute to biomass production is crucial to overcoming the biomass supply problem

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