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Culturable bacterial communities associated to Brazilian Oscarella species (Porifera: Homoscleromorpha) and their antagonistic interactions

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Abstract

Sponges offer an excellent model to investigate invertebrate–microorganism interactions. Furthermore, bacteria associated with marine sponges represent a rich source of bioactive metabolites. The aim of this study was to characterize the bacteria inhabiting a genus of sponges, Oscarella, and their potentiality for antimicrobial production. Bacterial isolates were recovered from different Oscarella specimens, among which 337 were phylogenetically identified. The culturable community was dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, and Vibrio was the most frequently isolated genus, followed by Shewanella. When tested for antimicrobial production, bacteria of the 12 genera isolated were capable of producing antimicrobial substances. The majority of strains were involved in antagonistic interactions and inhibitory activities were also observed against bacteria of medical importance. It was more pronounced in some isolated genera (Acinetobacter, Bacillus, Photobacterium, Shewanella and Vibrio). These findings suggest that chemical antagonism could play a significant role in shaping bacterial communities within Oscarella, a genus classified as low-microbial abundance sponge. Moreover, the identified strains may contribute to the search for new sources of antimicrobial substances, an important strategy for developing therapies to treat infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. This study was the first to investigate the diversity and antagonistic activity of bacteria isolated from Oscarella spp. It highlights the biotechnological potential of sponge-associated bacteria.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by CAPES, CNPq and FAPERJ to M.S. Laport, and to G. Muricy, and by a “Crédit de Recherches” Grant from FRS-FNRS to I. George. We are also grateful to Science Without Borders, a CNPq Program for the post doctorate scholarship to M.S. Laport; and to Prof. Philippe Dubois and Prof. Chantal de Ridder for accepting her in the “Laboratoire de Biologie Marine”, at “Université Libre de Bruxelles”, Belgium. Ph.W. received a travel Grant from the “Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique” (FNRS) to conduct field work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Bacteriologia Molecular e Marinha, Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Av Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-590, Brazil

    Marinella Silva Laport & Suzanne de Oliveira Nunes

  2. Laboratoire de Biologie Marine, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Campus du Solbosch, Av. F. D. Roosevelt, 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Marinella Silva Laport, Mathieu Bauwens, Philippe Willenz & Isabelle George

  3. Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Rue Vautier, 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Philippe Willenz

  4. Laboratório de Porifera, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Quinta da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040, Brazil

    Guilherme Muricy

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  1. Marinella Silva Laport
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  2. Mathieu Bauwens
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Correspondence to Marinella Silva Laport.

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Laport, M.S., Bauwens, M., de Oliveira Nunes, S. et al. Culturable bacterial communities associated to Brazilian Oscarella species (Porifera: Homoscleromorpha) and their antagonistic interactions. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 110, 489–499 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-016-0818-y

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