Marine sponges, due to their abundance in communities and the successive discoveries about their metabolic capacities, are perceived as key organisms in the functional ecology of numerous benthic ecosystems. Furthermore, sponges, because they are at the base of animal phylogeny, have genomes with enormous informative potential to understand the origin and the first evolutionary steps of the biological processes and organ systems that characterize animals.
Sponges also have the peculiarity that they are the only animals that have skeletons of silica (SiO2), a compound with the identical chemical formula as the glass in our windows, but produced by a biological process and called biogenic silica. Silica from the skeleton of sponges has been revealed in recent decades as a material of notable biological and ecological interest, but also technological, particularly in the fields of microelectronics, photonics and biomedicine. The mechanisms by which sponges process Si dissolved in seawater to produce their biogenic silica skeletons are poorly understood, even though they are considered a tool of notable interest for the development of new applications in science and technology.
In order to exploit all these interesting potentials, we need to resolve crucial aspects of the biology, ecology and properties of sponge silica. The specific objectives of the project are: 1) Resolve key steps in the cellular process of silica production by sponges that remain unknown; 2) Determine the environmental factors that regulate molecular and cytological aspects of silica production and model their effects, seeking future biotechnological control; 3) Investigate some properties of silica (e.e., resistance to dissolution) exploring its potential applicability; 4) Determine the main factors of variability in isotopic fractionation during the production of silica by sponges, in order to refine the use of stable isotopes of Si and O as ecological and paleontological tools; and 5) Quantify the contribution of sponges to some regional balances of Silicon, a key nutrient for ocean primary production.
