Zuppa Antonio, Costantini Susan, Costantini Maria
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori 'Fondazione Giovanni Pascale', IRCCS, Napoli, Italia.
Bioinformation. 2014 Apr 23;10(4):196-200. doi: 10.6026/97320630010196. eCollection 2014.
Marine sponges (Porifera) live in a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms, primarily bacteria. Recently, several studies indicated that sponges are the most prolific source of biologically-active compounds produced by symbiotic microorganisms rather than by the sponges themselves. In the present study we characterized the bacterial symbionts from two Demospongiae, Ircinia muscarum and Geodia cydonium. We amplified 16S rRNA by PCR, using specific bacterial-primers. The phylogenetic analysis revealed the presence of nine bacterial clones from I. muscarum and ten from G. cydonium. In particular, I. muscarum resulted enriched in Bacillus species and G. cydonium in Proteobacterium species. Since these bacteria were able to produce secondary metabolites with potential biotechnological and biopharmaceutical applications, we hypothesized that I. muscarum and G. cydonium could be a considered as a "gold mine" of natural products.
海洋海绵（多孔动物门）与微生物（主要是细菌）存在共生关系。最近，多项研究表明，海绵是共生微生物而非海绵自身产生的生物活性化合物的最丰富来源。在本研究中，我们对两种寻常海绵纲动物——肉豆蔻软海绵（Ircinia muscarum）和西顿圆海绵（Geodia cydonium）的细菌共生体进行了特征描述。我们使用特异性细菌引物通过聚合酶链反应（PCR）扩增了16S rRNA。系统发育分析显示，肉豆蔻软海绵中有9个细菌克隆，西顿圆海绵中有10个细菌克隆。特别值得一提的是，肉豆蔻软海绵富含芽孢杆菌属物种，而西顿圆海绵富含变形菌门物种。由于这些细菌能够产生具有潜在生物技术和生物制药应用价值的次生代谢产物，我们推测肉豆蔻软海绵和西顿圆海绵可被视为天然产物的“宝库”。
