Publication Date:
2021-04-25
Description:
djackso@uni-goettingen.de
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Aquatic Microbiology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Marine Science
Received: 31 October 2016
Accepted: 10 March 2017
Published: 28 March 2017
Citation:
Germer J, Cerveau N and Jackson DJ
(2017) The Holo-Transcriptome of a
Calcified Early Branching Metazoan.
Front. Mar. Sci. 4:81.
doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00081
The Holo-Transcriptome of a
Calcified Early Branching Metazoan
Juliane Germer, Nicolas Cerveau and Daniel J. Jackson*
Department of Geobiology, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Symbiotic interactions are widespread throughout the animal kingdom and are
increasingly recognized as an important trait that can shape the evolution of a species.
Sponges are widely understood to be the earliest branching clade of metazoans and
often contain dense, diverse yet specific microbial communities which can constitute
up to 50% of their biomass. These bacterial communities fulfill diverse functions
influencing the sponge’s physiology and ecology, and may have greatly contributed to
the evolutionary success of the Porifera. Here we have analyzed and characterized the
holo-transcriptome of the hypercalcifying demosponge Vaceletia sp. and compare it to
other sponge transcriptomic and genomic data. Vaceletia sp. harbors a diverse and
abundant microbial community; by identifying the underlying molecular mechanism of a
variety of lipid pathway components we show that the sponge seems to rely on the supply
of short chain fatty acids by its bacterial community. Comparisons to other sponges
reveal that this dependency may be more pronounced in sponges with an abundant
microbial community. Furthermore, the presence of bacterial polyketide synthase genes
suggests bacteria are the producers of Vaceletia’s abundant mid-chain branched fatty
acids, whereas demospongic acids may be produced by the sponge host via elongation
and desaturation of short-chain precursors. We show that the sponge and its microbial
community have the molecular tools to interact through different mechanisms including
the sponge’s immune system, and the presence of eukaryotic-like proteins in bacteria.
These results expand our knowledge of the complex gene repertoire of sponges and
show the importance of metabolic interactions between sponges and their endobiotic
microbial communities.
Description:
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2017
Keywords:
sponge, microbes, symbiosis, transcriptome, immunity, metabolism, fatty acid, signaling pathway
;
551
Language:
English
Type:
article
,
publishedVersion
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