Bacterial communities of the marine sponges Hymeniacidon heliophila and Polymastia janeirensis and their environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Turque, Aline S.; Cardoso, Alexander Machado; Silveira, Cynthia B.; Vieira, Ricardo P.; Freitas, Flávia Alvim Dutra de; Albano, Rodolpho Mattos; Gonzalez, Alessandra M.; Paranhos, Rodolfo; Muricy, Guilherme; Martins, Orlando B.

doi:10.1007/s00227-008-1008-x

Cited by 25 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The microbial community was dominated by the bacterial phylum Proteobacteria, specifically, the class Alphaproteobacteria. Previous studies have categorized H. heliophila as a low-microbial-abundance (LMA) sponge on the basis of transmission electronmicroscopic observations and microbial species composition (29,31). The latter is consistent with our results, as bacterial communities associated with LMA sponges tend to be dominated by Proteobacteria or Cyanobacteria (47,48).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The microbial symbiont community of H. heliophila was previously characterized in the Gulf of Mexico (31) and in Brazil (29), revealing a comparable community structure dominated by Alphaproteobacteria and including symbionts affiliated with Betaand Gammaproteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. While a relatively small proportion of North Carolina H. heliophila OTUs matched Gulf of Mexico OTUs, the matching OTUs comprised dominant taxa that constituted over half of the total clone library sequences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Nearly full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences from North Carolina H. heliophila samples were compared to those from previous studies in the Gulf of Mexico (31) and Brazil (29). Clone library analysis revealed greater microbial OTU richness in H. heliophila (n ϭ 65) from North Carolina than in conspecific hosts from the Gulf of Mexico (n ϭ 37) and Brazil (n ϭ 50).…”

Section: Fig 2 Compositions Of Microbial Communities Associated With mentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The intertidal environment is physiologically stressful for sessile filterfeeding organisms, and sponges that live in the intertidal zone experience periodic air exposure and consequential fluctuations in temperature, irradiance, and UV exposure (28). The demosponge Hymeniacidon heliophila (Parker 1910), commonly called the sun sponge, is abundant in coastal ecosystems of the Atlantic Ocean spanning a vast latitudinal range from the Gulf of Maine in the United States to Brazil (29). The sun sponge is able to live in the intertidal zone, with exposure to air twice daily at low tide, and in the subtidal zone at depths of 1 to 20 m. The sun sponge has adapted to high UV radiation exposure in the intertidal zone by producing antioxidant compounds such as L-5-hydroxytryptophan that prevent oxidative cell damage (30).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sun sponge is able to live in the intertidal zone, with exposure to air twice daily at low tide, and in the subtidal zone at depths of 1 to 20 m. The sun sponge has adapted to high UV radiation exposure in the intertidal zone by producing antioxidant compounds such as L-5-hydroxytryptophan that prevent oxidative cell damage (30). The microbial symbiont community structure of H. heliophila has been previously examined in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico (29,31), although these studies focused exclusively on subtidal sponges.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intraspecific Variation in Microbial Symbiont Communities of the Sun Sponge, Hymeniacidonheliophila, from Intertidal and Subtidal Habitats

Weigel

Erwin

2016

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Sponges host diverse and complex communities of microbial symbionts that display a high degree of host specificity. The microbiomes of conspecific sponges are relatively constant, even across distant locations, yet few studies have directly examined the influence of abiotic factors on intraspecific variation in sponge microbial community structure. The contrast between intertidal and subtidal environments is an ideal system to assess the effect of environmental variation on sponge-microbe symbioses, producing two drastically different environments on a small spatial scale. Here, we characterized the microbial communities of individual intertidal and subtidal Hymeniacidon heliophila sponges, ambient seawater, and sediment from a North Carolina oyster reef habitat by partial (Illumina sequencing) and nearly full-length (clone libraries) 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. Clone library sequences were compared to H. heliophila symbiont communities from the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, revealing strong host specificity of dominant symbiont taxa across expansive geographic distances. Sediment and seawater samples yielded clearly distinct microbial communities from those found in H. heliophila. Despite the close proximity of the sponges sampled, significant differences between subtidal and intertidal sponges in the diversity, structure, and composition of their microbial communities were detected. Differences were driven by changes in the relative abundance of a few dominant microbial symbiont taxa, as well as the presence or absence of numerous rare microbial taxa. These findings suggest that extreme abiotic fluctuations, such as periodic air exposure in intertidal habitats, can drive intraspecific differences in complex host-microbe symbioses. Sponges form ancient symbioses (as described in reference 1) with a great diversity of bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic microorganisms (1, 2). Most of these microbial symbionts elude cultivation (3); thus, culture-independent techniques such as next-generation DNA sequencing are necessary to elucidate the immense diversity of microbial communities in marine sponges. For example, the sponge Rhopaloeides odorabile hosts nearly 3,000 unique microbial taxa (4). Symbiotic microbes can constitute up to 40% of the sponge mesohyl volume (5) and perform a variety of ecological functions in the host sponge (6). Sponge-associated microbial symbionts may play roles in the nutrient acquisition, chemical defense production, antifouling activity, and disease susceptibility of host sponges (1, 7). Despite the ubiquity of microbial symbionts in sponges, much is still unknown about their structure and ecological function.Sponges host microbial communities that are distinct from those found in seawater and exhibit a high degree of host specificity (4, 8, 9), even between closely related sponge species (10). Determining what structures these symbiotic communities is a current research priority, because it will provide insight into the maintenance of one of the most ancient metazoan-microbial symbio...

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