Bacterial diversity associated with the excavating sponge Thoosa mismalolli from East Pacific Coral reefs

Abstract

Thoosa mismalolli is one of the most abundant and common excavating sponges along Mexican and Central America shallow reefs. This sponge harbors a microbiome unknown so far. In the present study, the metagenome of T. mismalolli was sequenced, and total reads obtained were classified, and contigs were assembled to analyze the microbiota. The results showed that the highest number of contigs was assigned to the phylum ‘Candidatus Poribacteria’ (8848), followed by the phylum Proteobacteria (6415), and Chloroflexi (3972). 22 MAGs with <8.5% redundancy using MaxBin 2 were detected: ‘Candidatus Poribacteria’ (5), Proteobacteria (5), Chloroflexi (6), Gemmatimonadetes (2), Actinobacteria (2), and Thaumarchaeota (2). The phylogenetic tree based on the 139 single-copy gene (SCG) suggested a subdivision into two clades of the phylum Proteobacteria. The presence Thaumarchaeota is also interesting to highlight because contains ammonia-oxidizing archaea considered key members of the global nitrogen and carbon biogeochemical cycles. In addition, shotgun metagenomic analysis revealed that protein sequences associated for amino acids (13.0%) and carbohydrate metabolism (12.4%) predominated. In this study, the first microbiome and functional potential of T. mismalolli is reported, which also represents the first investigation of a microbiota sponge in the Mexican Pacific reefs.