Compositional analysis of archaeal communities in high and low microbial abundance sponges in the Misool coral reef system, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

The high/low microbial abundance (HMA/LMA) dichotomy in sponges has been the subject of several studies over recent years, but few studies have analysed this dichotomy in terms of the sponge archaeal community and function. Using a 16S rRNA gene barcoded pyrosequencing approach and predictive functional analysis (PICRUSt) we compared the archaeal composition, richness and predicted function of one HMA sponge (Xestospongia testudinaria), one LMA sponge (Stylissa carteri) and one sponge species of unknown microbial abundance (Aaptos lobata). Although most of the archaeal sequences were assigned to the Crenarchaeota phylum, S. carteri had the highest percentage of sequences assigned to the Euryarchaeota phylum. Variation among sponge species explained >85% of the variation in archaeal operational taxonomic unit (OTU) composition with each sponge species forming a distinct cluster. There were significant differences in predicted PICRUSt profiles among sponge species, suggesting that archaeal communities present in the studied sponge species may perform different functions. X. testudinaria and A. lobata were similar both in terms of OTU and KEGG orthologues composition, which may indicate that A. lobata is a HMA sponge. Additionally, some of the most enriched functions seem to be related to traits associated with high and low microbial abundance sponges.

SUBJECT EDITOR:

• Mathias Middelboe

KEYWORDS:

• Archaea;16S rRNA gene
• Aaptos lobata
• HMA
• LMA
• PICRUSt

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the support in the field by Misool Eco Resort, Andy Miners, Dadi, Christiaan de Leeuw, Purwanto and The Nature Conservancy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Daniel Francis Richard Cleary http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6143-3390

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by European Funds through COMPETE – Operational Thematic Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization [FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-008657] and by National Funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the LESS CORAL project [PTDC/AAC-AMB/115304/2009] and the Ecotech-Sponge [PTDC/BIAMIC/6473/2014 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016531]. Thanks are due for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638), to FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC – Programme of investments and Expenditure of Development of the Central Administration), and the co-funding by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. Francisco J.R.C. Coelho and Ana R.M. Polónia were supported by a postdoctoral scholarship (SFRH/BPD/92366/2013 and SFRH/BPD/117563/2016 respectively) funded by FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the Human Capital Operational Programme (HCOP), subsidized by the European Social Fund (ESF) and National funds MCTES. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research provided funding to Leontine E.B. through the grant [RUBICON #825.12.007 and VENI#863.14.020].