fmicb-08-02499 December 13, 2017 Time: 16:15 # 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 14 December 2017 doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02499 Comparative Metagenomics Reveals the Distinctive Adaptive Features of the Spongia officinalis Endosymbiotic Consortium Elham Karimi1, Miguel Ramos1†, Jorge M. S. Gonçalves2, Joana R. Xavier3, Margarida P. Reis4 and Rodrigo Costa1,5* 1 Microbial Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Centre of Marine Sciences, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal, 2 Fisheries, Biodiversity and Conservation Research Group, Centre of Marine Sciences, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal, 3 Department of Biology and K.G. Jebsen Centre for Deep Sea Research, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, 4 Faculty of Edited by: Science and Technology, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal, 5 Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Department of Xavier Perret, Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal Université de Genève, Switzerland Reviewed by: Current knowledge of sponge microbiome functioning derives mostly from comparative Jose V. Lopez, Nova Southeastern University, analyses with bacterioplankton communities. We employed a metagenomics-centered United States approach to unveil the distinct features of the Spongia officinalis endosymbiotic Maged M. Saad, King Abdullah University of Science consortium in the context of its two primary environmental vicinities. Microbial and Technology, Saudi Arabia metagenomic DNA samples (n D 10) from sponges, seawater, and sediments were *Correspondence: subjected to Hiseq Illumina sequencing (c. 15 million 100 bp reads per sample). Totals Rodrigo Costa of 10,272 InterPro (IPR) predicted protein entries and 784 rRNA gene operational
[email protected] taxonomic units (OTUs, 97% cut-off) were uncovered from all metagenomes. Despite †Present address: Miguel Ramos, the large divergence in microbial community assembly between the surveyed biotopes, Linking Landscape, Environment, the S.