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Epidemic Mortality of the Sponge Ircinia variabilis (Schmidt, 1862) Associated to Proliferation of a Vibrio Bacterium

  • Invertebrate Microbiology
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Abstract

In recent years, several episodes of mass mortality of sessile epibenthic invertebrates, including sponges, have been recorded worldwide. In the present study, we report a disease event on Ircinia variabilis recorded in September 2009 along the southern Adriatic and Ionian seas (Apulian coast), with the aim to quantify the mortality incidence on the sponge population, to investigate the effect of the disease on the sponge tissues and to assess whether the disease is associated with vibrios proliferation. The injured sponges showed wide necrotic areas on the surface or disruption of the body in several portions. Necrotic areas were whitish and often were covered with a thin mucous coat formed by bacteria. In the most affected specimens, sponge organisation resulted partial or complete loss, with the final exposure of the dense skeletal network of spongine fibres to the environment. The results of microbiological cultural analysis using in parallel Marine Agar 2216 and thiosulphate/citrate/bile salts/sucrose agar demonstrated that, in affected specimens, vibrios represented 15.8 % of the total I. variabilis surface culturable bacteria. Moreover, all the isolated vibrios, grown from the wide whitish areas that characterize the surface of the diseased sponges, were identified, and their assignment to the Vibrio rotiferianus was consistent with phylogenetic analysis and data of morphological, cultural and biochemical tests. Studies on V. rotiferianus have shown that its pathogenicity, with respect to various aquatic organisms, is higher than that of Vibrio harveyi. The factors triggering the disease outbreak in Ircinia variabilis populations remain unclear. At present, we can hypothesize the involvement in the disease of a synergetic mechanism that, under stressful physiological conditions (high temperature, elevated nutrients and reduced water flow), induces sponge pathogens, in our case V. rotiferanius, to become virulent, making sponges unable to control their proliferation. Additional studies are needed to understand the etiological processes as well as the factors involved in sponges recovering from this epidemic event allowing them to face mass mortality. A drastic reduction of sponge-specific representatives could have marked a negative impact on the environmental health on account of their role in the sea remediation processes as filter-feeding organisms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Manuel Maldonado (Department of Marine Ecology, Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes, Girona, Spain) for the precious comments and suggestions. The National Interuniversities Consortium for Marine Sciences (CONISMA) provided infrastructures and financial support. Specifically, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. 266445 for the project Vectors of Change in Oceans and Seas Marine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors (VECTORS) and by the Euromediterranean Center for Climate Changes - CMCC (Italy- Israel Cooperation Programme on Environment Research and Development, funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, the Land and the Sea).

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  1. Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero IAMC-CNR, U.O.S. Taranto, Via Roma 3, 74100, Taranto, Italy

    Loredana Stabili

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche e Ambientali (Di.S.Te.B.A.), Università del Salento, Via Prov.le Lecce-Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Loredana Stabili, Pietro Alifano, S. Maurizio Tredici & Stefano Piraino

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Frine Cardone & Giuseppe Corriero

  4. Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare e Ambientale, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Elda Gaino

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  1. Loredana Stabili
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Stabili, L., Cardone, F., Alifano, P. et al. Epidemic Mortality of the Sponge Ircinia variabilis (Schmidt, 1862) Associated to Proliferation of a Vibrio Bacterium. Microb Ecol 64, 802–813 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-012-0068-0

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