Inhabitancy of active Nitrosopumilus-like ammonia-oxidizing archaea and Nitrospira nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in the sponge Theonella swinhoei

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 24966
• Main Authors: Feng, Guofang, Sun, Wei, Zhang, Fengli, Karthik, Loganathan, Li, Zhiyong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26-04-2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45/23; 45/41; 45/77; 45/91; 631/158/2452; 631/326/2565/855; Ammonia; Ammonia monooxygenase; Animals; Archaea - classification; Archaea - enzymology; Archaea - genetics; Archaea - metabolism; Archaeal Proteins - genetics; Archaeal Proteins - metabolism; Bacteria; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - enzymology; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - metabolism; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Classification; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Gene Expression Profiling - methods; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Nitrification; Nitrite Reductases - genetics; Nitrites; Nitrites - metabolism; Nitrogen cycle; Oxidation; Oxidoreductase; Oxidoreductases - genetics; Phylogeny; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - analysis; rRNA 16S; Science; Sequence Analysis, DNA - methods; Sequence Analysis, RNA - methods; Theonella - genetics; Theonella - microbiology; Transcription; South China Sea
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep24966

Nitrification directly contributes to the ammonia removal in sponges and it plays an indispensable role in sponge-mediated nitrogen cycle. Previous studies have demonstrated genomic evidences of nitrifying lineages in the sponge
Theonella swinhoei
. However, little is known about the transcriptional activity of nitrifying community in this sponge. In this study, combined DNA- and transcript-based analyses were performed to reveal the composition and transcriptional activity of the nitrifiers in
T. swinhoei
from the South China Sea. Transcriptional activity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in this sponge were confirmed by targeting their nitrifying genes,16S rRNA genes and their transcripts. Phylogenetic analysis coupled with RDP rRNA classification indicated that archaeal 16S rRNA genes,
amoA
(the subunit of ammonia monooxygenase) genes and their transcripts were closely related to
Nitrosopumilus
-like AOA; whereas nitrifying bacterial 16S rRNA genes,
nxrB
(the subunit of nitrite oxidoreductase) genes and their transcripts were closely related to
Nitrospira
NOB. Quantitative assessment demonstrated relative higher abundances of nitrifying genes and transcripts of
Nitrosopumilus
-like AOA than those of
Nitrospira
NOB in this sponge. This study illustrated the transcriptional potentials of
Nitrosopumilus
-like archaea and
Nitrospira
bacteria that would predominantly contribute to the nitrification functionality in the South China Sea
T. swinhoei
.