Do sponges have unique bacterial communities?

Thanks for the question Dirk. The project focuses very specifically on looking at only one group of sponges from the Family Tetillidae. These are classified within a group called Spirophorina. The reason I have chosen to have such a narrow taxonomic focus is to invest in depth, rather than breadth, for this study. By covering many individuals within a smaller taxonomic range, I will be able to look at questions of specificity of the bacteria for these sponges. Because tetillid sponges have been demonstrated to have bioactive compounds in them (that is chemical compounds which can act on animal cells), particularly tumour-suppressing agents, it is particularly important that I can get a good and thorough understanding of the precise diversity of bacteria in each sponge species. If the bacterial community composition is shown to be specific for each species of sponge, this will impact the research of drug biodiscovery chemists, in that they will know which sponges to target in their research. Further, if specificity in the bacterial community is can be demonstrated, having the composition of a sponge microbiome known and stored in a database will provide an efficient way that scientists and researchers can use to quickly identify sponges. Sponge researchers around the world are looking at the microbiomes of many other groups, but this is the first study that I know of that will look in such depth at one particular taxonomic group. That said, I will be including a number of other specimens from other groups (like Theonellidae and Ancorinidae) which have been collected from the same location to assess whether to the populations are regionally specific or taxonomically specific. Based on the results of this study, I would like to expand my taxonomic focus to include other groups of sponges from the Great Barrier Reef in coming years.

John, thanks so much for your comments. I agree absolutely that the potential for microbiome sequencing is enormous in terms of building our capacity as taxonomists to rapidly identify species of sponges. Further, I believe it will enhance our understanding of what a "species" actually is. I am excited about the chance to get going on this project and build some meaningful data profiles for these sponges.