[Coral-List] Bacteria communities in Sponges

[Jennyfer Andrea]

Dear colleagues
I started to work in bacteria communities of sponges from the Caribbean aprox 4 years ago. My last work is about epibiotic communities in these sponges. Lately I’ve been looking for opinion and/or evidence about the positive or negative effect of bacteria to control the settlement of spores and larvae. 
Specifically if there is some evidence to confirm that soft-bodied organisms (like sponges) may control the fouling by regulating the bacterial strains composition of the biofilm. Thus fouled surfaces should contain mostly inductive bacterial strains and clean surfaces should have preferably non-inductive ones.
In the best of my knowledge I’ve been reading different authors like Jensen and Fenical, Burguess, Kelly, Wieczorek and Todd, Patel…and seems like no matter how fouled is the surface (highly colonized or almost clean) it is possible to find both inductive-settlement bacteria and non-inductive. But some colleagues defend the idea that fouled surfaces preferably hold bacteria that induce the settlement. 
 
I will really appreciate your comments or references to clarify these ideas..

 
Best regards,
 





Jennyfer Mora 
Biologa. M.Sc. Ciencias Biológicas.
Universidad Nacional de Colombia-INVEMAR.

 


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