Host‐specific microbial communities in three sympatric North Sea sponges. Issue 2 (15th September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Naim, Mohd Azrul; Morillo, Jose A.; Sørensen, Søren J.; Waleed, Abu Al‐Soud; Smidt, Hauke; Sipkema, Detmer
• Is Part Of: FEMS microbiology ecology. Volume 90:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 390
• Page End: 403
• Publication Date: 2014-09-15
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1574-6941.12400
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0168-6496

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="fem12400-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The establishment of next‐generation technology sequencing has deepened our knowledge of marine sponge‐associated microbiota with the identification of at least 32 phyla of <italic>Bacteria</italic> and <italic>Archaea</italic> from a large number of sponge species. In this study, we assessed the diversity of the microbial communities hosted by three sympatric sponges living in a semi‐enclosed North Sea environment using pyrosequencing of bacterial and archaeal 16S ribosomal RNA gene fragments. The three sponges harbor species‐specific communities each dominated by a different class of <italic>Proteobacteria</italic>. An α‐proteobacterial <italic>Rhodobacter</italic>‐like phylotype was confirmed as the predominant symbiont of <italic>Halichondria panicea</italic>. The microbial communities of <italic>Haliclona xena</italic> and <italic>H. oculata</italic> are described for the first time in this study and are dominated by <italic>Gammaproteobacteria</italic> and <italic>Betaproteobacteria</italic>, respectively. Several common phylotypes belonging to <italic>Chlamydiae</italic>, TM6, <italic>Actinobacteria, </italic> and <italic>Betaproteobacteria</italic> were detected in all sponge samples. A number of phylotypes of the phylum <italic>Chlamydiae</italic> were present at an unprecedentedly high relative abundance of up to 14.4 ± 1.4% of the total reads, which suggests an important ecological role in North Sea sponges. These <italic>Chlamydiae</italic>‐affiliated operational taxonomic units may represent novel lineages at least at the genus level as they are only 86–92% similar to known sequences.</p> </abstract>