Mechanisms for the biparental transmission of microbial symbionts to offspring in the marine sponge Chondrilla australiensis are reported. The observation of microbial mutualists in the sperm of C. australiensis is the first report of this kind in any organism, as far as we are aware. The developing eggs were shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to incorporate intercellular cyanobacterial and bacterial symbionts. Nurse cells appeared to transport cyanobacterial symbionts from the surface layers of the sponge to eggs deeper in the matrix, where they were incorporated into the egg cytoplasm prior to spawning. This suggests that a host mechanism exists to actively recognise and incorporate symbionts, ensuring that larvae contain these mutualists before settlement. In addition, an average of 1.64% of mature sperm of C. australiensis contained cyanobacterial symbionts in their cytoplasm. The successful transmission of cyanobacterial symbionts to larvae was demonstrated by autofluorescent microscopy and TEM. The occurrence of organisms with functional mechanisms for transmission of symbionts from both parents to offspring provides the potential for new insights into the nature of host–symbiont interactions.

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The distribution, host associations, and phylogenetic relationships of the unicellular cyanobacterial symbionts of selected marine sponges were investigated with direct 16s rDNA sequencing. The results indicate that the symbionts of the marine sponges Aplysina aerophoba, Ircinia variabilis, and Petrosia ficiformis from the Mediterranean, four Chondrilla species from Australia and the Mediterranean, and Haliclona sp. from Australia support a diversity of symbionts comprising at least four closely related species of Synechococcus. These include the symbionts presently described as Aphanocapsa feldmannii from P. ficiformis and Chondrilla nucula. A fifth symbiont from Cymbastela marshae in Australia is an undescribed symbiont of sponges, related to Oscillatoria rosea. One symbiont, Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum, was found in diverse sponge genera in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian, Pacific, and Southern oceans, whereas others were apparently more restricted in host association and distribution. These results are discussed in terms of the biodiversity and biogeographic distributions of cyanobacterial symbionts.

Photosynthesis and translocation of photosynthetic products from symbiotic zooxanthellae in four species of temperate-latitude invertebrates were investigated in vivo and in vitro. In vivo, zooxanthellae fixed 14C and translocated a substantial proportion of fixed products to host tissues. In vitro, the effect of host tissue extracts on isolated zooxanthellae varied. Extracts of the soft coral Capnella gaboensis, lysed zooxanthellae after a relatively short exposure. Those of the zoanthid Zoanthus robustus and the nudibranch Pteraeolidia ianthina had little effect on translocation of organic carbon from zooxanthellae. In contrast, host extract of the scleractinian coral Plesiastrea versipora stimulated the release of up to 42% of the total 14C fixed, and the magnitude of release was positively correlated with the protein concentration of the extract. Host extracts had no effect on photosynthetic rates in algal symbionts. The effect of P. versipora extract on isolated zooxanthellae was studied. This extract caused zooxanthellae to divert photosynthetic products from lipid synthesis to the production of neutral compounds, principally glycerol, and these compounds were the predominant form of carbon detected extracellularly after incubating zooxanthellae in this extract. Only organic compounds made during the period of exposure of zooxanthellae to host extract, and not pre-formed photosynthetic products, were translocated. The translocation-inducing activity of host extract was almost completely destroyed by heating (100{deg}C), and a preliminary attempt to fractionate the tissue extract revealed that the active constituent did not pass through dialysis tubing of nominal pore size 10,000 D. These results are discussed in relation to host control of symbiotic partners, and to previous reports of "host-release factors" in other invertebrate symbioses.

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