Symbiosis, Selection, and Novelty: Freshwater Adaptation in the Unique Sponges of Lake Baikal.

ABSTRACT: Freshwater sponges (Spongillida) are a unique lineage of demosponges that secondarily colonized lakes and rivers and are now found ubiquitously in these ecosystems. They developed specific adaptations to freshwater systems, including the ability to survive extreme thermal ranges, long-lasting dessication, anoxia, and resistance to a variety of pollutants. Although spongillids have colonized all freshwater systems, the family Lubomirskiidae is endemic to Lake Baikal and plays a range of key roles in this ecosystem. Our work compares the genomic content and microbiome of individuals of three species of the Lubomirskiidae, providing hypotheses for how molecular evolution has allowed them to adapt to their unique environments. We have sequenced deep (>92% of the metazoan "Benchmarking Universa

SUBMITTER: Kenny NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6805232 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature