Heterotrophy in the earliest gut: a single-cell view of heterotrophic carbon and nitrogen assimilation in sponge-microbe symbioses.

ABSTRACT: Sponges are the oldest known extant animal-microbe symbiosis. These ubiquitous benthic animals play an important role in marine ecosystems in the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM), the largest source of organic matter on Earth. The conventional view on DOM cycling through microbial processing has been challenged by the interaction between this efficient filter-feeding host and its diverse and abundant microbiome. Here we quantify, for the first time, the role of host cells and microbial symbionts in sponge heterotrophy. We combined stable isotope probing and nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry to compare the processing of different sources of DOM (glucose, amino acids, algal-produced) and particulate organic matter (POM) by a high-microbial abundance (HMA) and low-microbial a

SUBMITTER: Rix L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7490408 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature