High similarity in the microbiota of cold-water sponges of the Genus Mycale from two different geographical areas

PeerJ. 2018 Jun 7:6:e4935. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4935. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Sponges belonging to genus Mycale are common and widely distributed across the oceans and represent a significant component of benthic communities in term of their biomass, which in many species is largely composed by bacteria. However, the microbial communities associated with Mycale species inhabiting different geographical areas have not been previously compared. Here, we provide the first detailed description of the microbiota of two Mycale species inhabiting the sub-Antarctic Magellan region (53°S) and the Western Antarctic Peninsula (62-64°S), two geographically distant areas (>1,300 km) with contrasting environmental conditions. The sponges Mycale (Aegogropila) magellanica and Mycale (Oxymycale) acerata are both abundant members of benthic communities in the Magellan region and in Antarctica, respectively. High throughput sequencing revealed a remarkable similarity in the microbiota of both sponge species, dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, with both species sharing more than 74% of the OTUs. In contrast, 16% and 10% of the OTUs were found only in either M. magellanica or M. acerata, respectively. Interestingly, despite slight differences in the relative abundance, the most dominant OTUs were present in both species, whereas the unique OTUs had very low abundances (less than 1% of the total abundance). These results show a significant overlap among the microbiota of both Mycale species and also suggest the existence of a low level of specificity of the most dominant symbiont groups.

Keywords: 16S rRNA; Antarctica; Cold-water filter feeders; High throughput sequencing; Magallanes; Porifera; Subantarctic.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Comisión de Ciencia y Tecnologia de Chile (CONICYT/FONDECYT/INACH/INICIACION/#11150129) and the EU Marie Curie IRSES Project DEANN (PIRSES-GA-2013-612583). Eduardo Hajdu received support from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development grant (CNPq 476558/2012–3) and the Carlos Chagas Filho Research Support Foundation of Rio de Janeiro State (FAPERJ E–26/102.292/2013). Maja Malmberg received financial support from the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning, Formas (Grant Number 221-2012-586). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.