microorganisms Article Not That Close to Mommy: Horizontal Transmission Seeds the Microbiome Associated with the Marine Sponge Plakina cyanorosea Bruno F. R. Oliveira 1,2 , Isabelle R. Lopes 1, Anna L. B. Canellas 1 , Guilherme Muricy 3, Alan D. W. Dobson 2,4 and Marinella S. Laport 1,* 1 Laboratório de Bacteriologia Molecular e Marinha, Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21941902, Brazil;
[email protected] (B.F.R.O.);
[email protected] (I.R.L.);
[email protected] (A.L.B.C.) 2 School of Microbiology, University College Cork, T12 Y960 Cork, Ireland;
[email protected] 3 Laboratório de Biologia de Porifera, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 20940040, Brazil;
[email protected] 4 Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, T23 XE10 Cork, Ireland * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 18 September 2020; Accepted: 25 November 2020; Published: 12 December 2020 Abstract: Marine sponges are excellent examples of invertebrate–microbe symbioses. In this holobiont, the partnership has elegantly evolved by either transmitting key microbial associates through the host germline and/or capturing microorganisms from the surrounding seawater. We report here on the prokaryotic microbiota during different developmental stages of Plakina cyanorosea and their surrounding environmental samples by a 16S rRNA metabarcoding approach. In comparison with their source adults, larvae housed slightly richer and more diverse microbial communities, which are structurally more related to the environmental microbiota. In addition to the thaumarchaeal Nitrosopumilus, parental sponges were broadly dominated by Alpha- and Gamma-proteobacteria, while the offspring were particularly enriched in the Vibrionales, Alteromonodales, Enterobacterales orders and the Clostridia and Bacteroidia classes.