Fraction of bacterial cells removed from the inhalant seawater by the filtering activities of the sponge

Range ≤96 %
Organism Sponges phylum Porifera
Reference Taylor MW, Radax R, Steger D, Wagner M. Sponge-associated microorganisms: evolution, ecology, and biotechnological potential. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2007 Jun71(2):295-347. DOI: 10.1128/MMBR.00040-06 p.324 right column bottom paragraphPubMed ID17554047
Primary Source [308] Reiswig, H. M. 1971. Particle feeding in natural populations of three marine demosponges. Biol. Bull. 141: 568-591. link
Comments P.324 right column bottom paragraph: "Early studies of particle feeding in sponges indicated that as much as 96% of bacterial cells were removed from the inhalant seawater by the filtering activities of the sponge (primary source). These results were supported by the later application of more sophisticated techniques, in particular flow cytometry (refs 23, 289, 290). Pile and colleagues reported grazing of the Atlantic sponge Mycale lingua on various types of plankton (<10 μm in size), with retention efficiencies ranging from 93% for Prochlorococcus-type cyanobacteria down to 72% for the smallest photosynthetic eukaryotes (ref 290). Similar methodologies applied to the encrusting New Zealand sponge Polymastia croceus showed the best retention of Synechococcus-type cyanobacteria (94%) and picoeukaryotes (88%), with somewhat poorer retention of Prochlorococcus-type cyanobacteria and other (noncyano-) bacteria (74 and 46%, respectively) (ref 23). The lower retention of some cell types suggested that P. croceus was selective in its feeding. Laboratory experiments involving the feeding of symbiotic versus seawater bacteria to other sponges lend strong support to the notion of selective feeding (refs 459, 482)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 113287