Abstract
The microbiota of four individual deep water sponges, Lissodendoryx diversichela, Poecillastra compressa, Inflatella pellicula, and Stelletta normani, together with surrounding seawater were analysed by pyrosequencing of a region of the 16S rRNA gene common to Bacteria and Archaea. Due to sampling constraints at depths below 700 m duplicate samples were not collected. The microbial communities of L. diversichela, P. compressa and I. pellicula were typical of low microbial abundance (LMA) sponges while S. normani had a community more typical of high microbial abundance (HMA) sponges. Analysis of the deep sea sponge microbiota revealed that the three LMA-like sponges shared a set of abundant OTUs that were distinct from those associated with sponges from shallow waters. Comparison of the pyrosequencing data with that from shallow water sponges revealed that the microbial communities of all sponges analysed have similar archaeal populations but that the bacterial populations of the deep sea sponges were distinct. Further analysis of the common and abundant OTUs from the three LMA-like sponges placed them within the groups of ammonia oxidising Archaea (Thaumarchaeota) and sulphur oxidising γ-Proteobacteria (Chromatiales). Reads from these two groups made up over 70% of all 16S rRNA genes detected from the three LMA-like sponge samples, providing evidence of a putative common microbial assemblage associated with deep sea LMA sponges.
Highlights
Marine sponges are important members of marine benthic communities throughout polar, tropical and temperate oceans
The cortex and the choanosome of S. normani were processed as two separate samples in order to characterize any potential spatial distribution of bacteria in this sponge for most analyses the data from these samples were combined
Three of the individual sponges in the study L. diversichela, I. pellicula and P. compressa were classified as low microbial abundance (LMA) sponges on the basis of their microbial communities
Summary
Marine sponges are important members of marine benthic communities throughout polar, tropical and temperate oceans. Marine sponges have gained much attention during recent years due to their remarkably dense and diverse community of bacterial, archaeal and eukaryotic microorganisms. This microbiota contributes to sponge biology in many ways, such as providing a chemical defence mechanism, carbon and nitrogen cycling and as a food source [2] [3]. Only a very small proportion of 90%, 95% and 97% OTUs was shared between different sponge species [19] This ‘‘core’’ community of microbial OTUs found in most studied sponges implies a horizontal transfer of spongeassociated microbial diversity through the surrounding seawater. Other studies have focused on describing the community structures in diverse sponges [3,15], including archaeal diversity [13], seasonal variations in the community structure [17] and functional analysis of the sponge metagenome [16,18]
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