Concentration of bacteria

Range bacteriosponges 10^8-10^10: low-microbial-abundance sponges (as natural sea water) 10^5-10^6 bacteria/gram of sponge wet weight
Organism Sponges phylum Porifera
Reference Hentschel, U., Usher, K. M., and Taylor, M. W. (2006). Marine sponges as microbial fermenters. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 55, 167–177. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2005.00046.x p.167 right column bottom paragraphPubMed ID16420625
Comments P.167 right column bottom paragraph: "Despite the fact that sponges feed on microorganisms, large numbers of extracellular bacteria populate the mesohyl matrix of many demosponges. These types of sponge have been termed ‘bacteriosponges’ or ‘high-microbial-abundance sponges’ (Vacelet & Donadey, 1977, Hentschel et al., 2003). However, the mesohyl of other sponges that coexist in the same habitat are essentially devoid of microorganisms (‘low-microbial-abundance sponges’) (Fig. 3). In the bacteriosponges, bacterial population densities may reach 10^8–10^10 bacteria per gram of sponge wet weight, exceeding seawater concentrations by 2–4 orders of magnitude, whereas in the low-microbial-abundance sponges, they are within the range of natural seawater (10^5–10^6 bacteria per gram of sponge wet weight) (U. Hentschel, unpublished data). Because the high-microbial-abundance sponges are typically larger than their low-microbial abundance counterparts whose mesohyl is essentially devoid of bacteria, it is tempting to speculate that the presence of internal microbial biomass contributes to their larger size."
Entered by Uri M
ID 113277