Eukaryotic diversity of marine sponges from Bidong Island, Malaysia

• Main Authors: Mohamad, Nur Hanisah, Mohd Omar, Suhaila, Zainal Abidin, Zaima Azira, Saad, Shahbudin, Mohamad, Mohd Azrul Naim
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: QR Microbiology
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/104447/1/PG%20Colloquium%202018.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/104447/2/Poster%20Nisa%20for%20KOS%20Postgraduate%20Colloquium%20latest.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/104447/
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

Sponges are sessile, benthic organisms that are known to host diverse microorganisms including Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. Prokaryotic microbial communities associated with sponges have been well studied by both cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent approaches, whereas eukaryotic microbial are the last frontier of microbial diversity yet to be fully characterized. The aim of this research was to explore the eukaryotic diversity of marine sponges from Bidong Island, based on molecular analysis. Three different type of sponge specimens from Bidong Island were collected using SCUBA equipment. As a comparison, habitat seawater was sampled at the dive site. All samples were collected in triplicates. The DNA of sponge specimens and seawater were extracted and pyrosequencing of 18s ribosomal RNA gene were carried out to investigate the diversity of eukaryotic in the sponge holobiont. Sequence analysis, OTU (operational taxonomic units) richness and multivariate analysis of pyrosequencing data were analysed using the Arb software. After DNA sequence quality filtering, a total of 896880 partial 18S rRNA non-chimeric reads were retained. For deeper phylogenetic analysis, OTUs obtained as sigletons and those were only found in the seawater were disregarded, leaving a final set of 102 eukaryotic OTUs detected in sponges and seawater which consist of fungi (21%), Stramenopiles (16%), Rhizaria (16%), Metazoa (15%), Holozoa (13%), Animalia (11%), Alveolata (3%) and unclassified OTUs (5%). Comparison between the relative abundance of sponges, fungi and other eukaryotes 18S rRNA gene sequences in sponge specimens and seawater, showed that most of the sequence reads were identified as sponge. For most sponges, fungi were present at very low relative abundance of the 18S rRNA gene reads compared to the seawater. Among the fungal OTUs detected in the sponges were dominated with the phylum Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. In conclusion, we detected diverse eukaryotes in marine sponges of Bidong island using molecular approach. Based on the data shown, there are indications that we know very little about the sponge-associated eukaryotes because there is little to be known. A better understanding of sponge-eukaryotic relationships would benefit from further exploring these two known relationships.