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The Ammonia Oxidizing and Denitrifying Prokaryotes Associated with Sponges from Different Sea Areas

  • Invertebrate Microbiology
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Abstract

Marine sponges have been suggested to play an important role in the marine nitrogen cycling. However, the role of sponge microbes in the nitrogen transformation remains limited, especially on the bacterial ammonia oxidization and denitrification. Hence, in the present study, using functional genes (amoA, nirS, nirK, and nxrA) involved in ammonia oxidization and denitrification and 16S rRNA genes for specific bacterial groups as markers, phylogenetically diverse prokaryotes including bacteria and archaea, which may be involved in the ammonia oxidization and denitrification processes in sponges, were revealed in seven sponge species. Ammonia oxidizers were found in all species, whereas three sponges (Placospongia sp., Acanthella sp., and Pericharax heteroraphis) harbor only ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), two sponges (Spirastrellidae diplastrella and Mycale fibrexilis) host only ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), while the remaining two sponges (Haliclona sp. and Lamellomorpha sp.) harbor both AOB and AOA. S. diplastrella and Lamellomorpha sp. also harbor denitrifying bacteria. Nitrite reductase gene nirK was detected only in Lamellomorpha sp. with higher phylogenetic diversity than nirS gene observed only in S. diplastrella. The detected functional genes related to the ammonia oxidization and nitrite reduction in deep-sea and shallow-water sponges highlighted the potential ecological roles of prokaryotes in sponge-related nitrogen transformation.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (41076077) is greatly acknowledged. The authors are grateful to Prof. Houwen Lin and Prof. Wen Zhang at Second Military Medical University (China) for assistance in collecting sponge samples and Liming He in identifying sponge samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Biotechnology Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Minqi Han & Fengli Zhang

  2. School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiyong Li

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  1. Minqi Han
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Correspondence to Zhiyong Li.

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Han, M., Li, Z. & Zhang, F. The Ammonia Oxidizing and Denitrifying Prokaryotes Associated with Sponges from Different Sea Areas. Microb Ecol 66, 427–436 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0197-0

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