Comparison of bacterial diversity and species composition in three endemic Baikalian sponges

¹ Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Republic of Korea
² Limnological Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk 664033, Russia
³ Department of Biological Sciences, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea
⁴ Polar BioCenter, Korea Polar Research Institute, KOPRI, Incheon 406-840, Republic of Korea

^* Corresponding author: ahnts@kangwon.ac.kr

Received: 10 July 2015
Accepted: 23 November 2015

Abstract

Baikalian sponges are unique organisms with many species harboring symbiotic microbes that produce novel bioactive compounds. To investigate bacterial diversity of three species of Baikalian sponges, specimens of Lubomirskia baicalensis, Baikalospongia intermedia and Swartschewskia papyracea collected from Lake Baikal were processed by pyrosequencing. We found differences in the species composition and diversity in bacteria among these sponges. Cyanobacteria accounted for the highest proportion and the second group was Proteobacteria in three sponges. The bacterial communities in B. intermedia and L. baicalensis were highly similar but less similar to the bacterial community associated with S. papyracea. Diversity of the bacterial community in S. papyracea was higher than in L. baicalensis and B. intermedia. In particular, the relative abundance of Actinobacteria was higher in S. papyracea. Bacterial species in phyla Acidobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes were only found in S. papyracea.