Sponges and their microbiome: Interacting for millions of years

Date:
June 29, 2023
Source:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita"t Mu"nchen
Summary:
Researchers demonstrate that sponges react to changes in their
microbiome with extensive modifications in gene regulation.


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==========================================================================
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at LMU demonstrate that sponges react to changes in their microbiome with extensive modifications in gene regulation.

For a number of years, mounting evidence has shown that the microbiome
-- the totality of all microorganisms that inhabit a living being --
interacts with its host in various ways and can influence key life
processes. Sponges, which rank among the oldest multicellular life forms
on Earth, likewise host a diverse array of microbial communities. A
new study led by Assistant Professor Sergio Vargas and Professor Gert
Wo"rheide from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the GeoBio-Center of the LMU have now discovered molecular mechanisms in the
model organism Lendenfeldia chondrodes via which the sponges respond
actively to changes in their microbiome. The researchers see their
findings as an indication of deep evolutionary origins for phylogenetic interaction between microbiome and host.

Sponges are organisms with a very simple structure that, in the course
of evolution, split off from the rest of the animal kingdom more than
600 million years ago. Sponges possess proteins involved in regulating interactions between sponge and microbiome, and those appear to be
responsible for the sponges' ability to modify their morphology in
response to changes in the microbiome.

"This suggests that the sponges' ability to interact with the microbiome
was an evolutionary early development," Vargas says. "However, there
has not yet been sufficient research into the underlying molecular
mechanisms." Focusing on the Lendenfeldia chondrodes sponge, which is frequently kept in aquariums, the researchers have now investigated
whether and how changes in the composition of the microbiome influence
the sponge's gene activity.

Defective microbiome triggers changes in the sponge Lendenfeldia
chondrodes is a sponge species with a microbiome dominated by
photosynthetic cyanobacteria. It obtains food by filtering microorganisms
out of the water but is also supplied with carbon compounds by its
symbionts. The sponges respond to the loss of cyanobacteria -- due to
shading, for example - - with significant changes to their morphology:
In the present study, initially blue sponges with foliose (leaf-like)
growth forms transformed into white, thread-like morphotypes with a
markedly different microanatomy.

Applying transcriptomic methods enabled the scientists to prove for the
first time that these changes are accompanied by extensive modifications
to gene regulation. "We observed changes in gene activities that are
involved in both immune response and development," Vargas notes. "This
suggests that sponges can perceive changes in their microbiome and
actively respond to them via development processes." The researchers
suspect that shaded sponges modify their metabolism to make up for the
fact that they receive fewer carbon compounds from their symbionts. "Our findings underscore the importance of the microbiome for the nutrition
and development of animals in general and point to a deep evolutionary
history shared by animals and their bacterial partners," Vargas says.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Plants_&_Animals
# Biotechnology # Nature # Evolutionary_Biology #
Microbiology
o Earth_&_Climate
# Sustainability # Earth_Science # Geology # Geochemistry
* RELATED_TERMS
o Sponge o Levee_failures_in_Greater_New_Orleans,_2005 o
Gene o Computational_genomics o Gene_therapy o Allele o
Vector_(biology) o Homeostasis

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sergio Vargas, Laura Leiva, Michael Eitel, Franziska Curdt,
Sven Rohde,
Christopher Arnold, Michael Nickel, Peter Schupp, William D Orsi,
Maja Adamska, Gert Wo"rheide. Body-Plan Reorganization in a Sponge
Correlates with Microbiome Change. Molecular Biology and Evolution,
2023; 40 (6) DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msad138 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230629125729.htm

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