Molecular biodiversity of Iranian shallow water sponges

Abstract

Despite their importance, our knowledge of the biodiversity and phylogeography of sponges in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters is largely unexplored. Such knowledge, however, is necessary to better understand those patterns and processes that generated and maintained sponge diversity in this largely separated marginal sea, and to create a foundation for future exploration of the marine natural resources in this area. Recently, several expeditions resulted in the so far largest sponge collection of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, which now led towards the most comprehensive molecular taxonomic inventory of sponges in this region to date. We analyzed a total of 143 samples molecularly and identified 52 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) based on 28S and CO1. Additional molecular comparison with the Red Sea sponge fauna indicate a strong differentiation and high levels endemism between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea respectively, supporting findings for other marine phyla.

Key words:

• Iran
• molecular taxonomy
• Persian Gulf
• Porifera
• sponges

Acknowledgements

DE, AG, BE, LN and TS acknowledge financial support from Lehre@LMU and MAH and AT support from SBUK. Gabriele Büttner and Simone Schätzle are thanked for various support in the lab. We would like to thank Amin Afzali, Mohammad Ghawasi, Koosha Dab and Fatemeh Heidari for support in the specimen collection. GW acknowledges funding by LMU Munich’s Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative, which partially supported the work. Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed by the authors. All necessary permits for sampling have been obtained by the authors from the Iranian authorities.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2020.1737978.

Associate Editor: Ana Riesgo

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Lehre@LMU (Grant Nr. W17_F4) to DE, LMU Munich’s Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative to GW, and the Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman for MAH and AT.