Insights into the evolution of freshwater sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae: Spongillina): Barcoding and phylogenetic data from Lake Tanganyika endemics indicate multiple invasions and unsettle existing taxonomy

Erpenbeck, Dirk; Weier, T M; Voogd, Nicole J. de; Wörheide, Gert; Sutcliffe, Patricia; Todd, Jonathan A.; Michel, Ellinor

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2011.05.021

Cited by 38 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…This mirrors the results of prior, individual and several gene/ITS based phylogenetic studies in freshwater sponges, e.g. (Meixner et al 2007, Erpenbeck et al 2011. As such, the monophyly of freshwater sponges, and the hypothesis of the independent evolution of endemic sponge species locally, from cosmopolitan founder species, seems secure (Meixner et al 2007).…”

Section: Mitochondrial Genomes and Mitochondrial And Nuclear-derivedsupporting

confidence: 84%

Symbiosis, Selection and Novelty: Freshwater Adaptation in the Unique Sponges of Lake Baikal

Kenny

Pleše

Riesgo

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Freshwater sponges (Spongillida) are a unique lineage of demosponges that secondarily colonized lakes and rivers and are now found ubiquitously in these ecosystems. They developed specific adaptations to freshwater systems, including the ability to survive extreme thermal ranges, long-lasting dessication, anoxia, and resistance to a variety of pollutants. While spongillids have colonized all freshwater systems, the family Lubomirskiidae is endemic to Lake Baikal, and plays a range of key roles in this ecosystem. Our work compares the genomic content and microbiome of individuals of three species of the Lubomirskiidae, providing hypotheses for how molecular evolution has allowed them to adapt to their unique environments. We have sequenced deep (>92% of the metazoan 'Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs' (BUSCO) set) transcriptomes from three species of Lubomirskiidae and a draft genome resource for Lubomirskia baikalensis. We note Baikal sponges contain unicellular algal and bacterial symbionts, as well as the dinoflagellate Gyrodinium. We investigated molecular evolution, gene duplication and novelty in freshwater sponges compared to marine lineages. Sixty one orthogroups have consilient evidence of positive selection.Transporters (e.g. zinc transporter-2), transcription factors (aristaless-related homeobox) and structural proteins (for example actin-3), alongside other genes, are under strong evolutionary pressure in freshwater, with duplication driving novelty across the Spongillida, but especially in the Lubomirskiidae. This addition to knowledge of freshwater sponge genetics provides a range of tools for understanding the molecular biology and, in the future, the ecology (for example, colonization and migration patterns) of these key species.

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Section: Mitochondrial Genomes and Mitochondrial And Nuclear-derivedsupporting

confidence: 84%

Symbiosis, Selection and Novelty: Freshwater Adaptation in the Unique Sponges of Lake Baikal

Kenny

Pleše

Riesgo

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…mtDNA (Folmer et al 1994) bear insufficient systematicresolution for freshwater sponges (see e.g., Erpenbeck et al 2011); however, the Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) of the nuclear rDNA cistron has repeatedly shown to provide the highest specieslevel resolution for Spongillida (e.g., Itskovich et al 2013bItskovich et al , 2015) with negligible amounts of intragenomic variability (Itskovich et al 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimalist barcodes for sponges: a case study classifying African freshwater Spongillida

Erpenbeck

Steiner

Schuster

et al. 2019

Genome

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African sponges, particularly freshwater sponges, are understudied relative to demosponges in most other geographical regions. Freshwater sponges (Spongillida) likely share a common ancestor; however, their evolutionary history, particularly during their radiation into endemic and allegedly cosmopolitan groups, is unclear. Freshwater sponges of at least 58 species of 17 genera and four families are described from Central and Eastern Africa, but the diversity is underestimated due to limited distinguishable morphological features. The discovery of additional cryptic species is very likely with the use of molecular techniques such as DNA barcoding. The Royal Museum of Central Africa (MRAC, Tervuren, Belgium) hosts one of the largest collections of (Central) African freshwater sponge type material. Type specimens in theory constitute ideal targets for molecular taxonomy; however, the success is frequently hampered by DNA degradation and deamination, which are a consequence of suboptimal preservation techniques. Therefore, we genotyped African demosponge holotype material of the MRAC with specific short primers suitable for degenerated tissue and compare the results with the current, morphology-based classification. Our results demonstrate the utility of minimalistic barcodes for identification of sponges, potentially enabling efficient identification of individuals in taxonomic or metabarcoding studies, and highlight inconsistencies in the current freshwater sponge classification.

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“…Therefore, two of the five monotypic genera of this family should be included in Spongillidae, and one should be abandoned. Furthermore, as four endemic sponge variants from lake Tanganyika also fell within the Spongillidae (Erpenbeck et al 2011), molecular analysis of the two remaining Malawispongid genera -Malawispongia (endemic Malawi) and Spinospongilla (endemic Tanganyika)could potentially lead to the family Malawispongiidae being synonymised with the family Spongillidae.…”

Section: Sequence Alignments and Tree Reconstructionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The number of endemic species of freshwater sponges (Malawispongiidae; Spongillina; Porifera) from Lake Kinneret is overestimated

Ицкович

Kaluzhnaya

Ostrovsky

et al. 2013

J Zoolog Syst Evol Res

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It is well accepted that the freshwater sponges (Porifera; Haplosclerida; Spongillina) currently comprise six extant families: Spongillidae, Lubomirskiidae, Malawispongiidae, Metaniidae, Metschnikowiidae and Potamolepidae, but the phylogeny of this group is poorly understood. Family Malawispongiidae includes five genera: Malawispongia, Spinospongilla, Cortispongilla, Ochridaspongia, Pachydictyum, which inhabit ancient lakes: Malawi and Tanganyika (African Rift Valley), Kinneret (Middle East), Ohrid (Europe) and Poso (Central Sulawesi). We show via nuclear and mitochondrial markers (cox 1, 28S rRNA and ribosomal ITS regions) that both endemic species Cortispongilla barroisi and Ephydatia syriaca from Lake Kinneret are synonymous with the cosmopolitian species Ephydatia fluviatilis, which also supports suggestions that the family Malawispongiidae is polyphyletic. Our findings also suggest that Nudospongilla is a synthetic taxon and that the number of endemic freshwater sponge species is overestimated.

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Insights into the evolution of freshwater sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae: Spongillina): Barcoding and phylogenetic data from Lake Tanganyika endemics indicate multiple invasions and unsettle existing taxonomy

Cited by 38 publications

References 27 publications

Symbiosis, Selection and Novelty: Freshwater Adaptation in the Unique Sponges of Lake Baikal

Symbiosis, Selection and Novelty: Freshwater Adaptation in the Unique Sponges of Lake Baikal

Minimalist barcodes for sponges: a case study classifying African freshwater Spongillida

The number of endemic species of freshwater sponges (Malawispongiidae; Spongillina; Porifera) from Lake Kinneret is overestimated

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