El projecte es centra en la identificació i quantificació de les arquees més abundants en les esponges d’ambients contaminats, amb funcions potencials en el metabolisme del nitrogen, fòsfor i sofre, la qual cosa ens proporcionarà pistes sobre la rellevància de les arquees simbionts en l’èxit competitiu de les esponges en condicions adverses, com ara les derivades de diferents tipus de contaminació
The study follows up the Marsymbiomics project and is framed within one of research lines of the CEAB (CSIC) group “Molecular Ecology of the Marine Benthos”, where it is addressed the contribution of multiple symbiosis to the biodiversity and functioning of the marine benthos. We use the sponges as models, as they are the oldest extant animals in Earth, harbor numerous symbiotic bacteria and archaea, and can proliferate in eutrophic environments.
By analyzing the microbiome of the sponges proliferating in polluted environments and in particular the Archaea, we want to obtain cues on the role of these symbiotic micro-organisms in removing or transforming some compounds (e.g. ammonium or Sulphur) that result from anthropic activities and that otherwise would be noxious for the sponges.
The study involves the recollection of sponges proliferating in polluted areas, their taxonomic identification (morphological and molecular), DNA extraction and massive sequencing of the symbiotic archaea, design of Taqman probes of targeted (because of their particular metabolisms) archaea, and their quantification using qPCR.