Faculty and Student Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2021
Abstract
Aplysina cauliformis, the Caribbean purple rope sponge, is commonly affected by Aplysina Red Band Syndrome (ARBS). This transmissible disease manifests as circular lesions with red margins and results in bare spongin fibers. Leptolyngbya spp. appear to be responsible for the characteristic red coloration but transmission studies with a sponge-derived isolate failed to establish disease, leaving the etiology of ARBS unknown. To investigate the cause of ARBS, contact transmission experiments were performed between healthy and diseased sponges separated by filters with varying pore sizes. Transmission occurred when sponges were separated by filters with pore sizes ≥ 2.5 μm, suggesting a prokaryotic pathogen(s) but not completely eliminating eukaryotic pathogen(s). Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing methods, 38 prokaryotic taxa were significantly enriched in diseased sponges, including Leptolyngbya, whereas seven taxa were only found in some, but not all, of the ARBS-affected sponges. These results do not implicate a single taxon, but rather a suite of taxa that changed in relative abundance with disease, suggesting a polymicrobial etiology as well as dysbiosis. As a better understanding of dysbiosis is gained, changes in the composition of associated prokaryotic communities may have increasing importance for evaluating and maintaining the health of individuals and imperiled coral reef ecosystems.
Relational Format
journal article
Recommended Citation
Monti, M., Giorgi, A., Easson, C. G., Gochfeld, D. J., & Olson, J. B. (2022). Transmission studies and the composition of prokaryotic communities associated with healthy and diseased Aplysina cauliformis sponges suggest that Aplysina Red Band Syndrome is a prokaryotic polymicrobial disease. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 97(12), fiab164. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiab164
DOI
10.1093/femsec/fiab164
Accessibility Status
Searchable text