This book focuses on the symbiotic microbiomes of invertebrates in coral reefs, especially sponges and corals. It provides in-depth and up-to-date reviews on the microbial structure and diversity, metabolism and function, symbiosis and coevolution, environment and adaption, and bioactive potentials. Meanwhile, the future perspectives will be discussed according to the existing problems and the development trend. This book will be of particular interest to the professionals in marine ecology, marine biotechnology, as well as medicinal chemists and molecular biologists.

One of two special issues of Advances in Marine Biology focusing on sponge science, it features comprehensive reviews of the latest studies that are advancing our understanding of the fascinating marine phylum Porifera. The selected contributors are internationally renowned researchers in their respective fields and provide a thorough overview of the state-of-the-art of sponge science. This volume will become a reference to marine biologists with interest in benthic ecology and biotic interactions, including symbiosis; chemical and molecular ecology; systematics, phylogeny, and evolution; sponge culture and tissue engineering

This book focuses on the symbiotic microbiomes of invertebrates in coral reefs, especially sponges and corals. It provides in-depth and up-to-date reviews on the microbial structure and diversity, metabolism and function, symbiosis and coevolution, environment and adaption, and bioactive potentials. Meanwhile, the future perspectives will be discussed according to the existing problems and the development trend. This book will be of particular interest to the professionals in marine ecology, marine biotechnology, as well as medicinal chemists and molecular biologists.

"The symbiotic lifestyle represents a fundamental contribution to the diversity of marine ecosystems. Sponges are ideal models to study symbiotic relationships from evolutionary and ecological points of view since they are the most ancient metazoans on Earth, are ubiquitous in the marine benthos, and establish complex symbiosis with both prokaryotes and animals, which in turn harbour their own bacterial communities. In this thesis, we aim to go deeper into the mechanisms by which sponges establish symbiotic associations with members of the three domains of life, combining taxonomical, ecological, and molecular approaches. We study how sponges acquire their symbiotic microbes and whether these microbes contribute to shape the ecological distribution of their hosts. Moreover, we use the sponge-polychaete relationship as an example of multi-partner symbiosis and study the eukaryotic association from the microbial perspective. Finally, we focus on the less studied domain of life, the archaea, to gain insights into the composition and stability of these symbionts in sponges.To assess these goals, we characterized the sponge assemblages in two contrasting environments (well-preserved and impacted) of Nha Trang Bay (Vietnam) and selected the most abundant species for the study of their microbiomes. Additionally, four sponge species harbouring thousands of polychaetes were sampled to analyse the relationships sponge-microbes-polychaetes. Sponges and polychaetes were identified and their respective microbiones and the seawater bacterial communities were analysed by high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene (V4 region). We first describe and illustrate the sponges collected to facilitate further taxonomic and faunistic studies in the area. Our samples belonged to 60 species (9 orders, 22 families, and 36 genera) of demosponges. A total of 24 species were added to the already known sponge fauna of Vietnam, from which, 11 species likely represent new species to science. The described species represent an increase of 8 % in the already known sponge list of Vietnam. Our results show that sponge assemblages were more diverse and rich in the well-preserved environments, being dominated by Neofibularia sp. and Aaptos suberitoides in the reefs, and by Monanchora unguiculata, Antho (Antho) sp., and Amphimedon sulcata in rocky habitats. On the other hand, impacted coral reefs were mainly dominated by two abundant species: Clathria reinwardti and Amphimedon paraviridis.Similar ecological metrics were shown by the sponge microbiomes according to the type of habitat, being more diverse in the well-preserved environments. Morever, the sponge microbiomes of the sponge assemblages from the impacted habitats showed higher intra-species dispersion and lower core size (shared ZOTUs across species replicates) than microbiomes of sponges from the well-preserved environments. In this sense, we propose that the Anna Karenina concept, which states that intraspecific variability is higher in dysbiotic than in healthy individuals, can also be applied at the community level for the study sponge assemblages.In our study sponges, bacterial communities were highly stable regardless of the environment, whereas some of their associated polychaetes varied depending on the sampling location. Environmental resilience to different habitat conditions was certainly true for bacterial communities of A. sulcata, the solely species that was found abundant in the two contrasting habitats explored.Moreover, the high overlap in bacteria composition between sponges and seawater suggest microsymbiont acquisition from the environment. In a similar manner, polychaetes were also able to specifically select and enrich some bacteria from their food sponge. Overall, most sequences were shared between biotypes, but at differential abundances, leading to highly specific and stable invertebrate microbiomes, acquired from the environment. Our results support the tenet "Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects." -- TDX.

Modern molecular -omics tools (metagenomics, metaproteomics etc.) have greatly contributed to the rapid advancement of our understanding of microbial diversity and function in the world’s oceans. These tools are now increasingly applied to host-associated environments to describe the symbiotic microbiome and obtain a holistic view of marine host-microbial interactions. Whilst all eukaryotic hosts are likely to benefit from their microbial associates, marine sessile eukaryotes, including macroalgae, seagrasses and various invertebrates (sponges, acidians, corals, hydroids etc), rely in particular on the function of their microbiome. For example, marine sessile eukaryotes are under constant grazing, colonization and fouling pressure from the millions of micro- and macroorganisms in the surrounding seawater. Host-associated microorganisms have been shown to produce secondary metabolites as defense molecules against unwanted colonization or pathogens, thus having an important function in host health and survival. Similarly microbial symbionts of sessile eukaryotes are often essential players in local nutrient cycling thus benefiting both the host and the surrounding ecosystem. Various research fields have contributed to generating knowledge of host-associated systems, including microbiology, biotechnology, molecular biology, ecology, evolution and biotechnology. Through a focus on model marine sessile host systems we believe that new insight into the interactions between host and microbial symbionts will be obtained and important areas of future research will be identified. This research topic includes original research, review and opinion articles that bring together the knowledge from different aspects of biology and highlight advances in our understanding of the diversity and function of the microbiomes on marine sessile hosts.

This book correlates the vast genetic diversity associated with environmental samples and still underexploited potential for the development of biotechnology products. The book points out the potential of different types of environmental samples. It presents the main characteristics of microbial diversity, the main approaches used for molecular characterization of the diversity, and practical examples of application of the exploration of the microbial diversity. It presents a not-yet-explored structure for discussing the main topics related to molecular biology of environmental prokaryotes and their biotechnological applications.

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