Diversity of a bacterial community associated with Cliona lobata Hancock and Gelliodes pumila (Lendenfeld, 1887) sponges on the South-East coast of India

Abstract

Marine sponges are sources of various bioactive metabolites, including several anticancer drugs, produced mainly by sponge-associated microbes. Palk Bay, on the south-east coast of India, is an understudied, highly disturbed reef environment exposed to various anthropogenic and climatic stresses. In recent years, Palk Bay suffered from pollution due to the dumping of untreated domestic sewage, effluents from coastal aquaculture, tourism, salt pans, cultivation of exotic seaweeds, and geogenic heavy-metal pollution, especially arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead. Low microbial-abundant sponge species, such as Gelliodes pumila and Cliona lobata , were found to be ubiquitously present in this reef environment. Triplicate samples of each of these sponge species were subjected to Illumina MiSeq sequencing using V3–V4 region-specific primers. In both C. lobata and G. pumila, there was an overwhelming dominance (98 and 99%) of phylum Candidatus Saccharibacteria and Proteobacteria , respectively . The overall number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) was 68 (40 and 13 OTUs unique to G. pumila and C. lobata , respectively; 15 shared OTUs). Alphaproteobacteria was the most abundant class in both the sponge species. Unclassified species of phylum Candidatus Saccharibacteria from C. lobata and Chelotivorans composti from G. pumila were the most abundant bacterial species. The predominance of Alphaproteobacteria also revealed the occurrence of various xenobiotic-degrading, surfactant-producing bacterial genera in both the sponge species, indirectly indicating the possible polluted reef status of Palk Bay. Studies on sponge microbiomes at various understudied geographical locations might be helpful in predicting the status of reef environments.

Effects of Artemisia ordosica Crude Polysaccharide on Antioxidant and Immunity Response, Nutrient Digestibility, Rumen Fermentation, and Microbiota in Cashmere Goats

“…In this regard, it is possible that the antibacterial effect of polysaccharides may contribute to the reduction in the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria in rumen fluid. There was a negative correlation between the TVFA concentration in the CON group and Streptococcus and unclassified_c__Alphaproteobacteria genera, indicating that these two bacteria inhibited the degradation of soluble carbohydrates [62,63], which also explained why TVFA concentrations in the CON and AOCP groups were lower. Polysaccharides have prebiotic properties, and their beneficial effects are mainly seen in the composition of rumen microflora and their metabolite SCFAs.…”

Assessing the Diversity and Biomedical Potential of Microbes Associated With the Neptune’s Cup Sponge, Cliona patera

“…Interestingly, C. patera supported distinct symbiont communities within the cup and stem portions of the sponge. While this is the first study examining the microbiome of C. patera , the microbiomes of several Cliona species have been studied, namely Cliona celata , Cliona delitrix , Cliona lobata , Cliona orientalis , Cliona thomasi , Cliona tumula , Cliona varians , and Cliona viridis ( Jeong et al, 2015 ; Thomas et al, 2016 ; Ramsby et al, 2018 ; Easson et al, 2020 ; Meenatchi et al, 2020 ; Mote et al, 2020 ; Sacristán-Soriano et al, 2020 ). This is, however, the first study of a Clionid sponge to identify distinct microbiomes separated into different sections of an individual sponge.…”

Tapping the Role of Microbial Biosurfactants in Pesticide Remediation: An Eco-Friendly Approach for Environmental Sustainability

“…Metagenomics coupled with in-silico bioinformatic tools or repositories such as KEGG (Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes), COG (clusters of orthologous groups), EAWAG-BBD pathway prediction system, enviPath, BIOWIN, etc., helps in predictive degradation of pesticides along with the metabolite/biosurfactant identification involved in degradation mechanism ( Awasthi et al, 2020 ; Rodríguez et al, 2020 ; Shah et al, 2021 ; Singh et al, 2021 ). A repository named BioSurfDB (biosurfactant degradation database) consists of about 1,077 microbes, 3,763 genes, 3,430 proteins, and 47 detailed bioremediation pathways using biosurfactants ( Araújo et al, 2020 ; Meenatchi et al, 2020 ; Kumari and Kumar, 2021 ).…”