Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
Laboratoire de Chimie et de Biotechnologie des Produits Naturels, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Université de La Réunion, 15 Avenue René Cassin, CS 92003, CEDEX 09, 97744 Saint-Denis, France.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2023 Feb 28;99(3). doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiad014.
Calcareous sponges are an often overlooked element of sponge communities. In contrast to most other sponges, calcareous sponges produce calcium carbonate spicules, as opposed to the siliceous spicules of most sponges. Here, we investigated the bacterial communities of 17 sponge species, including type and paratype specimens of recently described calcareous species, sampled off the remote island of Rodrigues, in the Indian Ocean. The main axis of variation in a PCO analysis of all samples separated noncalcareous sponge species, including Axinyssa aplysinoides, Cinachyrella aff. australiensis, Petrosia seychellensis, Ircinia aff. variabilis, Spongia ceylonensis, Plakinastrella aff. clipptertonensis, Agelas aff. ceylonica, Agelas aff. mauritiana, and Hyrtios erectus from calcareous sponges, the noncalcareous Biemna tubulata, sediment, and seawater. Overall, the bacterial communities of calcareous sponges revealed unique prokaryotic profiles with low abundances of several bacterial phyla, and relatively high abundances of other taxa, for example, the phyla Fibrobacterota, Proteobacteria, and the SAR324 clade, the class Alphaproteobacteria, and orders Cytophagales and Cyanobacteriales, although there was considerable variation among species. Calcareous sponges also had a high dominance of unknown bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Considering the unique nature of these communities, further studies are needed to better understand the environmental and ecological drivers of calcareous sponge-associated bacterial communities and their relevance as potential sources of novel microbes of biotechnological interest.
钙质海绵是海绵群落中经常被忽视的一个元素。与大多数其他海绵不同，钙质海绵产生碳酸钙刺，而不是大多数海绵的硅质刺。在这里，我们研究了 17 种海绵物种的细菌群落，包括最近描述的钙质物种的模式和副模式标本，这些物种是在印度洋偏远的罗德里格斯岛采集的。所有样本的 PCO 分析的主要变化轴将非钙质海绵物种与钙质海绵物种分开，包括 Axinyssa aplysinoides、Cinachyrella aff. australiensis、Petrosia seychellensis、Ircinia aff. variabilis、Spongia ceylonensis、Plakinastrella aff. clipptertonensis、Agelas aff. ceylonica、Agelas aff. mauritiana 和 Hyrtios erectus，而非钙质的 Biemna tubulata、沉积物和海水。总的来说，钙质海绵的细菌群落揭示了独特的原核生物图谱，具有少数细菌门的低丰度和相对较高的其他类群的丰度，例如 Fibrobacterota、Proteobacteria 和 SAR324 分支、Alphaproteobacteria 类、Cytophagales 和 Cyanobacteriales 目，尽管物种之间存在相当大的变异。钙质海绵的未知细菌操作分类单元（OTU）也具有很高的优势。考虑到这些群落的独特性质，需要进一步研究以更好地了解钙质海绵相关细菌群落的环境和生态驱动因素及其作为具有生物技术兴趣的新型微生物潜在来源的相关性。
