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Zootaxa May 2021The peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa has accelerated the rate of sponge (Porifera) species discoveries in 289 peer-reviewed papers published between 2002 up until the end...
The peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa has accelerated the rate of sponge (Porifera) species discoveries in 289 peer-reviewed papers published between 2002 up until the end of 2020, describing 725 new species, six new subspecies, 27 new genera, four new subgenera, and 123 new species and genus names needed to resolve existing homonyms. Zootaxa has been the most prolific of all taxonomic journals in its contributions to describing new taxa of Porifera in modern times. This present article analyses these taxonomic contributions over the past 20 years of Zootaxa, including their trends and highlights pertaining to sponge publications.
Topics: Animals; Periodicals as Topic; Porifera
PubMed: 34187015
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4979.1.8 -
PloS One 2012With the completion of a single unified classification, the Systema Porifera (SP) and subsequent development of an online species database, the World Porifera Database... (Review)
Review
With the completion of a single unified classification, the Systema Porifera (SP) and subsequent development of an online species database, the World Porifera Database (WPD), we are now equipped to provide a first comprehensive picture of the global biodiversity of the Porifera. An introductory overview of the four classes of the Porifera is followed by a description of the structure of our main source of data for this paper, the WPD. From this we extracted numbers of all 'known' sponges to date: the number of valid Recent sponges is established at 8,553, with the vast majority, 83%, belonging to the class Demospongiae. We also mapped for the first time the species richness of a comprehensive set of marine ecoregions of the world, data also extracted from the WPD. Perhaps not surprisingly, these distributions appear to show a strong bias towards collection and taxonomy efforts. Only when species richness is accumulated into large marine realms does a pattern emerge that is also recognized in many other marine animal groups: high numbers in tropical regions, lesser numbers in the colder parts of the world oceans. Preliminary similarity analysis of a matrix of species and marine ecoregions extracted from the WPD failed to yield a consistent hierarchical pattern of ecoregions into marine provinces. Global sponge diversity information is mostly generated in regional projects and resources: results obtained demonstrate that regional approaches to analytical biogeography are at present more likely to achieve insights into the biogeographic history of sponges than a global perspective, which appears currently too ambitious. We also review information on invasive sponges that might well have some influence on distribution patterns of the future.
Topics: Animals; Biodiversity; Databases, Factual; Demography; Oceans and Seas; Porifera; Species Specificity
PubMed: 22558119
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035105 -
Advances in Marine Biology 2012Sponges (phylum Porifera) are a diverse taxon of benthic aquatic animals of great ecological, commercial, and biopharmaceutical importance. They are arguably the... (Review)
Review
Sponges (phylum Porifera) are a diverse taxon of benthic aquatic animals of great ecological, commercial, and biopharmaceutical importance. They are arguably the earliest-branching metazoan taxon, and therefore, they have great significance in the reconstruction of early metazoan evolution. Yet, the phylogeny and systematics of sponges are to some extent still unresolved, and there is an on-going debate about the exact branching pattern of their main clades and their relationships to the other non-bilaterian animals. Here, we review the current state of the deep phylogeny of sponges. Several studies have suggested that sponges are paraphyletic. However, based on recent phylogenomic analyses, we suggest that the phylum Porifera could well be monophyletic, in accordance with cladistic analyses based on morphology. This finding has many implications for the evolutionary interpretation of early animal traits and sponge development. We further review the contribution that mitochondrial genes and genomes have made to sponge phylogenetics and explore the current state of the molecular phylogenies of the four main sponge lineages (Classes), that is, Demospongiae, Hexactinellida, Calcarea, and Homoscleromorpha, in detail. While classical systematic systems are largely congruent with molecular phylogenies in the class Hexactinellida and in certain parts of Demospongiae and Homoscleromorpha, the high degree of incongruence in the class Calcarea still represents a challenge. We highlight future areas of research to fill existing gaps in our knowledge. By reviewing sponge development in an evolutionary and phylogenetic context, we support previous suggestions that sponge larvae share traits and complexity with eumetazoans and that the simple sedentary adult lifestyle of sponges probably reflects some degree of secondary simplification. In summary, while deep sponge phylogenetics has made many advances in the past years, considerable efforts are still required to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the relationships among and within the main sponge lineages to fully appreciate the evolution of this extraordinary metazoan phylum.
Topics: Animals; Evolution, Molecular; Larva; Phylogeny; Porifera; Reproduction
PubMed: 22560777
DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-387787-1.00007-6 -
MBio Apr 2016A paradigm shift has recently transformed the field of biological science; molecular advances have revealed how fundamentally important microorganisms are to many... (Review)
Review
A paradigm shift has recently transformed the field of biological science; molecular advances have revealed how fundamentally important microorganisms are to many aspects of a host's phenotype and evolution. In the process, an era of "holobiont" research has emerged to investigate the intricate network of interactions between a host and its symbiotic microbial consortia. Marine sponges are early-diverging metazoa known for hosting dense, specific, and often highly diverse microbial communities. Here we synthesize current thoughts about the environmental and evolutionary forces that influence the diversity, specificity, and distribution of microbial symbionts within the sponge holobiont, explore the physiological pathways that contribute to holobiont function, and describe the molecular mechanisms that underpin the establishment and maintenance of these symbiotic partnerships. The collective genomes of the sponge holobiont form the sponge hologenome, and we highlight how the forces that define a sponge's phenotype in fact act on the genomic interplay between the different components of the holobiont.
Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; Genome, Bacterial; Microbial Consortia; Porifera; Symbiosis
PubMed: 27103626
DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00135-16 -
Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part... Jan 2020Origin and early evolution of regeneration mechanisms remain among the most pressing questions in animal regeneration biology. Porifera have exceptional regenerative...
Origin and early evolution of regeneration mechanisms remain among the most pressing questions in animal regeneration biology. Porifera have exceptional regenerative capacities and, as early Metazoan lineage, are a promising model for studying evolutionary aspects of regeneration. Here, we focus on reparative regeneration of the body wall in the Mediterranean demosponge Aplysina cavernicola. The epithelialization of the wound surface is completed within 2 days, and the wound is completely healed within 2 weeks. The regeneration is accompanied with the formation of a mass of undifferentiated cells (blastema), which consists of archaeocytes, dedifferentiated choanocytes, anucleated amoebocytes, and differentiated spherulous cells. The main mechanisms of A. cavernicola regeneration are cell dedifferentiation with active migration and subsequent redifferentiation or transdifferentiation of polypotent cells through the mesenchymal-to-epithelial transformation. The main cell sources of the regeneration are archaeocytes and choanocytes. At early stages of the regeneration, the blastema almost devoid of cell proliferation, but after 24 hr postoperation (hpo) and up to 72 hpo numerous DNA-synthesizing cells appear there. In contrast to intact tissues, where vast majority of DNA-synthesizing cells are choanocytes, all 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine-labeled cells in the blastema are mesohyl cells. Intact tissues, distant from the wound, retains intact level of cell proliferation during whole regeneration process. For the first time, the apoptosis was studied during the regeneration of sponges. Two waves of apoptosis were detected during A. cavernicola regeneration: The first wave at 6-12 hpo and the second wave at 48-72 hpo.
Topics: Animals; Cell Differentiation; Cell Transdifferentiation; Porifera; Regeneration
PubMed: 31725194
DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.22919 -
Marine Genomics Jun 2022In this paper, we identify some sponge specimens collected in the Faro Lake in Sicily, and belonging to Haliclona (Halicoclona) by using morphological analysis...
In this paper, we identify some sponge specimens collected in the Faro Lake in Sicily, and belonging to Haliclona (Halicoclona) by using morphological analysis accompanied by molecular analysis through amplification of several molecular markers (18S and 28S rRNA, CO1 and ITS). The samples are identified as. H. (Halichoclona) vansoesti de Weerdt, de Kluijver & Gómez, 1999, a species native to the Caribbean, and therefore this is the first record of an alien species of the Demospongiae class (Porifera) from the Mediterranean Sea. This presence can be ascribed as results of global change (mainly global warming) that are affecting marine environment.
Topics: Animals; Caribbean Region; Haliclona; Introduced Species; Mediterranean Sea; Porifera
PubMed: 35395504
DOI: 10.1016/j.margen.2022.100951 -
Planta Medica Jun 2016Sponges and their associated microbiota are well known to produce a large diversity of natural products, also called specialized metabolites. In addition to their... (Review)
Review
Sponges and their associated microbiota are well known to produce a large diversity of natural products, also called specialized metabolites. In addition to their potential use in the pharmaceutical industry, these rather species-specific compounds may help in the classification of some particular sponge groups. We review herein compounds isolated from haplosclerid sponges (Class Demospongia, Order Haplosclerida) in order to help in the revision of this large group of marine invertebrates. We focus only on 3-alkylpyridine derivatives and polyacetylenic compounds, as these two groups of natural products are characteristic of haplosclerid species and are highly diverse. A close collaboration between chemists and biologists is required in order to fully apply chemotaxonomical approaches, and whenever possible biological data should include morphological and molecular data and some insight into their microbial abundance.
Topics: Animals; Biodiversity; Porifera; Pyridines
PubMed: 27135628
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-105879 -
Progress in Molecular and Subcellular... 1998
Review
Topics: Animals; Evolution, Molecular; Phylogeny; Porifera
PubMed: 15898189
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-48745-3_4 -
Zootaxa Oct 2023Sponges of the genus Suberites are quite polymorphic and diverse, yet the delimitation of species within the group has always been challenging since there are only a few...
Sponges of the genus Suberites are quite polymorphic and diverse, yet the delimitation of species within the group has always been challenging since there are only a few spicule types that show little, or sometimes no variation in closely allied species. Koltun (1966) created a variety, S. domuncula var. ficussomething of a dustbin assemblagewith a geographic distribution ranging from the North Atlantic, across the Arctic, to the North Pacific Oceans. Our study shows that in the Arctic/Subarctic region, boreal S. ficus is replaced by a mix of closely related species: in the western-ArcticS. lutkenii, in the eastern-ArcticS. cebriones. A defining featurecentrotylote microxeassets the northern species group apart from the boreal S. ficus and all other congeners known outside the Arctic/Subarctic seas. Altogether, we report seven species and one variety belonging to Suberites from the European Arctic/Subarctic. Five species are Arctic endemics: S. lutkenii, S. spermatozoon, S. montiniger, S. glasenappii, and S. cebriones. One species, S. virgultosus, is a typical boreal. S. syringella is apparently a species complex.
Topics: Animals; Suberites; Arctic Regions; Porifera
PubMed: 38220655
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5357.1.2 -
Zootaxa Jun 2016The Drake Passage has over 20 seamounts and ridges but it is notorious for large waves, fierce storms and strong currents that make benthic sampling difficult and...
The Drake Passage has over 20 seamounts and ridges but it is notorious for large waves, fierce storms and strong currents that make benthic sampling difficult and therefore infrequent. Seamounts often have diverse sponge communities and may have high levels of endemism. Hexactinellida from Sars Seamount, an area in which the sponges had not previously been studied, and the Shackleton fracture zone were collected on a research cruise by the Nathaniel B Palmer in the Drake Passage, Southern Ocean. In total, from all cruise stations, 103 specimens of Hexactinellida were collected, however many appeared to be fragments of dead specimens and could not be identified due to missing microscleres. From Sars Seamount 127 sponge specimens were taken and from the Shackleton Fracture Zone 76 sponge specimens were taken; of these 36 and 16 respectively were Hexactinellida. From these two areas three new species of Hexactinellida are described: Doconesthes robinsoni sp. nov., Sympagella walleri sp. nov. and Caulophacus palmeri sp. nov and new records were made of Aulocalyx irregularis and Rossella antarctica.
Topics: Animal Distribution; Animal Structures; Animals; Body Size; Oceans and Seas; Organ Size; Porifera
PubMed: 27395582
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4126.2.2