Prokaryotic communities of Indo-Pacific giant barrel sponges are more strongly influenced by geography than host phylogeny.

ABSTRACT: Sponges harbor complex communities of microorganisms that carry out essential roles for the functioning and survival of their hosts. In some cases, genetically related sponges from different geographic regions share microbes, while in other cases microbial communities are more similar in unrelated sponges collected from the same location. To better understand how geography and host phylogeny cause variation in the prokaryotic community of sponges, we compared the prokaryotic community of 44 giant barrel sponges (Xestospongia spp.). These sponges belonged to six reproductively isolated genetic groups from eight areas throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Using Illumina sequencing, we obtained 440 000 sequences of the 16S rRNA gene V3V4 variable region that were assigned to 3795 operational ta

SUBMITTER: Swierts T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6196991 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature