ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 15 November 2016 doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00228 Ontogenetic Changes in the Bacterial Symbiont Community of the Tropical Demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica: Metamorphosis Is a New Beginning Rebecca A. Fieth 1, Marie-Emilie A. Gauthier 1, Joanne Bayes 1, Kathryn M. Green 2 and Sandie M. Degnan 1* 1 Marine Genomics Lab, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 2 Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Vertical transmission of bacterial symbionts, which is known in many species of sponge (Porifera), is expected to promote strong fidelity between the partners. Combining Edited by: Ute Hentschel Humeida, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and electron microscopy, we have assayed the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean relative abundance of vertically-inherited bacterial symbionts in several stages of the Research Kiel, Germany life cycle of Amphimedon queenslandica, a tropical coral reef sponge. We reveal that Reviewed by: adult A. queenslandica house a low diversity microbiome dominated by just three Laura Steindler, University of Haifa, Israel proteobacterial OTUs, with a single gammaprotebacterium clearly dominant through Lucas Moitinho-Silva, much of the life cycle. This ontogenetic perspective has revealed that, although vertical University of New South Wales, Australia transmission occurs very early in development, the inherited symbionts do not maintain *Correspondence: proportional dominance of the bacterial community at every developmental stage. A Sandie M. Degnan reproductive bottleneck in the A. queenslandica life cycle is larval settlement, when
[email protected] a free-swimming pelagic larva settles out of the water column onto the benthos and Specialty section: completes metamorphoses into the sessile body plan within just 3–4 days.