Genomic time machine in sea sponges
Date:
April 13, 2022
Source:
University of New Hampshire
Summary:
Sponges in coral reefs, less flashy than their coral neighbors but
important to the overall health of reefs, are among the earliest
animals on the planet. New research examines coral reef ecosystems
with a novel approach to understanding the complex evolution of
sponges and the microbes that live in symbiosis with them. With
this 'genomic time machine,' researchers can predict aspects of
reef and ocean ecosystems through hundreds of millions of years
of dramatic evolutionary change.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Sponges in coral reefs, less flashy than their coral neighbors but
important to the overall health of reefs, are among the earliest
animals on the planet. New research from the University of New Hampshire examines coral reef ecosystems with a novel approach to understanding
the complex evolution of sponges and the microbes that live in symbiosis
with them. With this "genomic time machine," researchers can predict
aspects of reef and ocean ecosystems through hundreds of millions of
years of dramatic evolutionary change.
========================================================================== "This work shows how microbiomes have evolved in a group of organisms over
700 million years old," said Sabrina Pankey, a postdoctoral researcher
and lead author of the study. "Sponges are increasing in abundance on
reefs in response to climate change and they play an enormous role in
water quality and nutrient fixation." In the study, recently published
in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, the significance of the work transcends sponges, providing a new approach to understanding the past
based on genomics. The researchers characterized almost 100 sponge
species from across the Caribbean using a machine-learning method to
model the identity and abundance of every member of the sponges' unique microbiomes, the community of microbes and bacteria that live within them
in symbiosis. They found two distinct microbiome compositions that led to different strategies sponges used for feeding (sponges capture nutrients
by pumping water through their bodies) and protecting themselves against predators -- even among species that grew side by side on a reef.
"If we can reconstruct the evolutionary history of complex microbial communities like this, we can say a lot about the Earth's past,"
said David Plachetzki, associate professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences and study co-author. "Research like this could reveal aspects of the chemical composition of the Earth's oceans going back to
before modern coral reefs even existed, or it could provide insights on
the tumult that marine ecosystems experienced in the aftermath of the
greatest extinction in history that took place about 252 million years
ago." The types of symbiotic communities the researchers describe in
this paper are very complex, yet they can show they evolved independently multiple times. They say that there is something very specific about
what these microbial communities are doing. Sponges dozens of times have decided that this diverse arrangement of microbes works for them.
Leveraging this new genomic approach, the researchers found that the
origin of one of these distinct microbiomes, which had a high microbial abundance (HMA) of more than a billion microbes per gram of tissue,
occurred at a time when the Earth's oceans underwent a significant change
in biogeochemistry coincident with the origins of modern coral reefs.
The project was funded by National Science Foundation Dimensions of Biodiversity and Biological Oceanography Program.
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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_New_Hampshire. Original written by Beth Potier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. M. Sabrina Pankey, David C. Plachetzki, Keir J. Macartney, Marianela
Gastaldi, Marc Slattery, Deborah J. Gochfeld, Michael P. Lesser.
Cophylogeny and convergence shape holobiont evolution in
sponge-microbe symbioses. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2022; DOI:
10.1038/s41559-022- 01712-3 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220413203126.htm
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