Open AccessHost rules: spatial stability of bacterial communities associated with marine sponges ( I rcinia spp.) in the W estern M editerranean S ea
Author(s) -
Pita Lucía,
Turon Xavier,
LópezLegentil Susanna,
Erwin Patrick M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
fems microbiology ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.377
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1574-6941
pISSN - 0168-6496
DOI - 10.1111/1574-6941.12159
Subject(s) - biology , biological dispersal , terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism , ecology , host (biology) , sponge , geographical distance , habitat , restriction fragment length polymorphism , mediterranean climate , mediterranean sea , botany , population , genetics , polymerase chain reaction , demography , sociology , gene
Dispersal limitation and environmental selection are the main processes shaping free‐living microbial communities, but host‐related factors may also play a major role in structuring symbiotic communities. Here, we aimed to determine the effects of isolation‐by‐distance and host species on the spatial structure of sponge‐associated bacterial communities using as a model the abundant demosponge genus I rcinia . We targeted three co‐occurring I rcinia species and used terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism ( T ‐ RFLP ) analysis of 16 S r RNA gene sequences to explore the differentiation of their bacterial communities across a scale of hundreds of kilometres in the W estern M editerranean S ea. Multivariate analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling plots of T ‐ RFLP profiles showed that bacterial communities in I rcinia sponges were structured by host species and remained stable across sampling locations, despite geographic distances (80–800 km) and diverse local conditions. While significant differences among some locations were observed in I rcinia variabilis ‐derived communities, no correlation between geographic distance and community similarity was consistently detected for symbiotic bacteria in any host sponge species. Our results indicate that bacterial communities are mostly shaped by host species‐specific factors and suggest that evolutionary processes acting on long‐term symbiotic relationships have favored spatial stability of sponge‐associated bacterial communities.