School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2014 Jun;88(3):516-27. doi: 10.1111/1574-6941.12317. Epub 2014 Mar 26.
Sponges are an important component of temperate subtidal marine ecosystems, with a range of important functional roles and extensive symbiotic relationships with microorganisms. However, much remains unknown about their relationships with these symbiotic microorganisms, and specifically, the role that these symbionts play in sponge physiology, feeding and adaptation to local environmental conditions. Changes in environmental factors may alter relationships between sponges and their symbionts, which could conceivably influence the abundance and distribution patterns of some temperate sponge species. Here, we analyzed the effect of transplantation of sponges between different habitats to test the effect of changes in environmental conditions on the stability of the bacterial communities in specimens of Tethya bergquistae and Ecionemia alata, based on pyrosequencing of amplified 16S rRNA genes. Bacterial communities differed markedly between the two host species. While some morphological changes were observed in transplanted sponges, transplantation had little overall effect on sponge-associated bacterial communities at either phylum or 97%-OTU level. Our results show the importance of host species and also the stability of sponge-associated bacterial communities under environmental variation.
海绵是温带浅海海洋生态系统的重要组成部分，具有一系列重要的功能作用和广泛的与微生物共生关系。然而，我们对它们与这些共生微生物的关系知之甚少，特别是这些共生体在海绵生理学、摄食以及对当地环境条件的适应中所扮演的角色。环境因素的变化可能会改变海绵与其共生体之间的关系，这可能会影响一些温带海绵物种的丰度和分布模式。在这里，我们通过扩增 16S rRNA 基因的焦磷酸测序，分析了将海绵从不同生境移植到测试环境条件变化对 Tethya bergquistae 和 Ecionemia alata 标本中细菌群落稳定性的影响，以检验海绵在不同生境之间的移植对细菌群落稳定性的影响。两种宿主物种的细菌群落存在明显差异。虽然在移植的海绵中观察到一些形态变化，但在门或 97%-OTU 水平上，移植对海绵相关细菌群落的总体影响很小。我们的结果表明，宿主物种的重要性以及在环境变化下海绵相关细菌群落的稳定性。
