Browsing by Author "Xavier, Joana R."
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- A decade to study deep-sea lifePublication . Howell, Kerry L.; Hilario, Ana; Allcock, A. Louise; Bailey, David; Baker, Maria; Clark, Malcolm R.; Colaco, Ana; Copley, Jon; Cordes, Erik E.; Danovaro, Roberto; Dissanayake, Awantha; Escobar, Elva; Esquete, Patricia; Gallagher, Austin J.; Gates, Andrew R.; Gaudron, Sylvie M.; German, Christopher R.; Gjerde, Kristina M.; Higgs, Nicholas D.; Le Bris, Nadine; Levin, Lisa A.; Manea, Elisabetta; McClain, Craig; Menot, Lenaick; Mestre, Nélia; Metaxas, Anna; Milligan, Rosanna; Muthumbi, Agnes W. N.; Narayanaswamy, Bhavani E.; Ramalho, Sofia P.; Ramirez-Llodra, Eva; Robson, Laura M.; Rogers, Alex D.; Sellanes, Javier; Sigwart, Julia D.; Sink, Kerry; Snelgrove, Paul V. R.; Stefanoudis, Paris V.; Sumida, Paulo Y.; Taylor, Michelle L.; Thurber, Andrew R.; Vieira, Rui; Watanabe, Hiromi K.; Woodall, Lucy C.; Xavier, Joana R.The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development presents an exceptional opportunity to effect positive change in ocean use. We outline what is required of the deep-sea research community to achieve these ambitious objectives.
- A blueprint for an inclusive, global deep-sea ocean decade field programPublication . Howell, Kerry L.; Hilário, Ana; Allcock, A. Louise; Bailey, David M.; Baker, Maria; Clark, Malcolm R.; Colaço, Ana; Copley, Jon; Cordes, Erik E.; Danovaro, Roberto; Dissanayake, Awantha; Escobar, Elva; Esquete, Patricia; Gallagher, Austin J.; Gates, Andrew R.; Gaudron, Sylvie M.; German, Christopher R.; Gjerde, Kristina M.; Higgs, Nicholas D.; Le Bris, Nadine; Levin, Lisa A.; Manea, Elisabetta; McClain, Craig; Menot, Lenaick; Mestre, Nélia; Metaxas, Anna; Milligan, Rosanna J.; Muthumbi, Agnes W. N.; Narayanaswamy, Bhavani E.; Ramalho, Sofia P.; Ramirez-Llodra, Eva; Robson, Laura M.; Rogers, Alex D.; Sellanes, Javier; Sigwart, Julia D.; Sink, Kerry; Snelgrove, Paul V. R.; Stefanoudis, Paris V.; Sumida, Paulo Y.; Taylor, Michelle L.; Thurber, Andrew R.; Vieira, Rui P.; Watanabe, Hiromi K.; Woodall, Lucy C.; Xavier, Joana R.The ocean plays a crucial role in the functioning of the Earth System and in the provision of vital goods and services. The United Nations (UN) declared 2021-2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Roadmap for the Ocean Decade aims to achieve six critical societal outcomes (SOs) by 2030, through the pursuit of four objectives (Os). It specifically recognizes the scarcity of biological data for deep-sea biomes, and challenges the global scientific community to conduct research to advance understanding of deep-sea ecosystems to inform sustainable management. In this paper, we map four key scientific questions identified by the academic community to the Ocean Decade SOs: (i) What is the diversity of life in the deep ocean? (ii) How are populations and habitats connected? (iii) What is the role of living organisms in ecosystem function and service provision? and (iv) How do species, communities, and ecosystems respond to disturbance? We then consider the design of a global-scale program to address these questions by reviewing key drivers of ecological pattern and process. We recommend using the following criteria to stratify a global survey design: biogeographic region, depth, horizontal distance, substrate type, high and low climate hazard, fished/unfished, near/far from sources of pollution, licensed/protected from industry activities. We consider both spatial and temporal surveys, and emphasize new biological data collection that prioritizes southern and polar latitudes, deeper (> 2000 m) depths, and midwater environments. We provide guidance on observational, experimental, and monitoring needs for different benthic and pelagic ecosystems. We then review recent efforts to standardize biological data and specimen collection and archiving, making "sampling design to knowledge application" recommendations in the context of a new global program. We also review and comment on needs, and recommend actions, to develop capacity in deep-sea research; and the role of inclusivity - from accessing indigenous and local knowledge to the sharing of technologies - as part of such a global program. We discuss the concept of a new global deep-sea biological research program 'Challenger 150,' highlighting what it could deliver for the Ocean Decade and UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.
- Comparative metagenomics reveals the distinctive adaptive features of the Spongia officinalis endosymbiotic consortiumPublication . Karimi, Elham; Ramos, Miguel; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Xavier, Joana R.; Reis, Margarida; Costa, RodrigoCurrent knowledge of sponge microbiome functioning derives mostly from comparative analyses with bacterioplankton communities. We employed a metagenomics-centered approach to unveil the distinct features of the Spongia officinalis endosymbiotic consortium in the context of its two primary environmental vicinities. Microbial metagenomic DNA samples (n = 10) from sponges, seawater, and sediments were subjected to Hiseq Illumina sequencing (c. 15 million 100 bp reads per sample). Totals of 10,272 InterPro (IPR) predicted protein entries and 784 rRNA gene operational taxonomic units (OTUs, 97% cut-off) were uncovered from all metagenomes. Despite the large divergence in microbial community assembly between the surveyed biotopes, the S. officinalis symbiotic community shared slightly greater similarity (p < 0.05), in terms of both taxonomy and function, to sediment than to seawater communities. The vast majority of the dominant S. officinalis symbionts (i.e., OTUs), representing several, so-far uncultivable lineages in diverse bacterial phyla, displayed higher residual abundances in sediments than in seawater. CRISPR-Cas proteins and restriction endonucleases presented much higher frequencies (accompanied by lower viral abundances) in sponges than in the environment. However, several genomic features sharply enriched in the sponge specimens, including eukaryotic-like repeat motifs (ankyrins, tetratricopeptides, WD-40, and leucine-rich repeats), and genes encoding for plasmids, sulfatases, polyketide synthases, type IV secretion proteins, and terpene/terpenoid synthases presented, to varying degrees, higher frequencies in sediments than in seawater. In contrast, much higher abundances of motility and chemotaxis genes were found in sediments and seawater than in sponges. Higher cell and surface densities, sponge cell shedding and particle uptake, and putative chemical signaling processes favoring symbiont persistence in particulate matrices all may act as mechanisms underlying the observed degrees of taxonomic connectivity and functional convergence between sponges and sediments. The reduced frequency of motility and chemotaxis genes in the sponge microbiome reinforces the notion of a prevalent mutualistic mode of living inside the host. This study highlights the S. officinalis "endosymbiome" as a distinct consortium of uncultured prokaryotes displaying a likely "sit-and-wait" strategy to nutrient foraging coupled to sophisticated anti-viral defenses, unique natural product biosynthesis, nutrient utilization and detoxification capacities, and both microbe-microbe and host-microbe gene transfer amenability.
- Effects of sample handling and cultivation bias on the specificity of bacterial communities in keratose marine spongesPublication . Hardoim, Cristiane; Cardinale, Massimiliano; Cucio, Ana C. B.; Esteves, Ana; Berg, Gabriele; Xavier, Joana R.; Cox, C. J.; Costa, RodrigoComplex and distinct bacterial communities inhabit marine sponges and are believed to be essential to host survival, but our present-day inability to domesticate sponge symbionts in the laboratory hinders our access to the full metabolic breadth of these microbial consortia. We address bacterial cultivation bias in marine sponges using a procedure that enables direct comparison between cultivated and uncultivated symbiont community structures. Bacterial community profiling of the sympatric keratose species Sarcotragus spinosulus and lrcinia variabilis (Dictyoceratida, Irciniidae) was performed by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 454-pyrosequecing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. Whereas cultivation-independent methods revealed species-specific bacterial community structures in these hosts, cultivation-dependent methods resulted in equivalent community assemblages from both species. Between 15 and 18 bacterial phyla were found in S. spinosulus and I. variabilis using cultivation-independent methods. However, Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria dominated the cultivation-dependent bacterial community. While cultivation-independent methods revealed about 200 and 220 operational taxonomic units (OTUs, 97% gene similarity) in S. spinosulus and I. variabilis, respectively, only 33 and 39 OTUs were found in these species via culturing. Nevertheless, around 50% of all cultured OTUs escaped detection by cultivation-independent methods, indicating that standard cultivation makes otherwise host-specific bacterial communities similar by selectively enriching for rarer and generalist symbionts. This study sheds new light on the diversity spectrum encompassed by cultivated and uncultivated sponge-associated bacteria. Moreover, it highlights the need to develop alternative culturing technologies to capture the dominant sponge symbiont fraction that currently remains recalcitrant to laboratory manipulation.
- Molecular richness and biotechnological potential of bacteria cultured from Irciniidae sponges in the north-east AtlanticPublication . Esteves, Ana; Hardoim, Cristiane; Xavier, Joana R.; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Costa, RodrigoSeveral bioactive compounds originally isolated from marine sponges have been later ascribed or suggested to be synthesized by their symbionts. The cultivation of sponge-associated bacteria provides one possible route to the discovery of these metabolites. Here, we determine the bacterial richness cultured from two irciniid sponge species, Sarcotragus spinosulus and Ircinia variabilis, and ascertain their biotechnological potential. A total of 279 isolates were identified from 13 sponge specimens. These were classified into 17 genera - with Pseudovibrio, Ruegeria and Vibrio as the most dominant - and 3 to 10 putatively new bacterial species. While 16S rRNA gene sequencing identified 29 bacterial phylotypes at the 'species' level (97% sequence similarity), whole-genome BOX-PCR fingerprinting uncovered 155 genotypes, unveiling patterns of specimen-dependent occurrence of prevailing bacterial genomes across sponge individuals. Among the BOX-PCR genotypes recovered, 34% were active against clinically relevant strains, with Vibrio isolates producing the most active antagonistic effect. Several Pseudovibrio genotypes showed the presence of polyketide synthase (PKS) genes, and these were for the first time detected in isolates of the genus Aquimarina (Bacteroidetes). Our results highlight great biotechnological potential and interest for the Irciniidae sponge family and their diversified bacterial genomes.
- A pioneering longterm experiment on mesophotic macrofouling communities in the North AtlanticPublication . Canning-Clode, João; Gizzi, Francesca; Braga-Henriques, Andreia; Ramalhosa, Patrício; Abreu, Pedro; Álvarez, Soledad; Biscoito, Manuel; Buhl-Mortensen, Pål; Delgado, João; Esson, Diane; Freitas, Mafalda; Freitas, Magno; Henriques, Filipe; Jakobsen, Joachim; Jakobsen, Kirsten; Kerckhof, Francis; Lüter, Carsten; Moura, Carlos J.; Radeta, Marko; Rocha, Rosana M.; Santos, Romana; Sepúlveda, Pedro; Silva, Rodrigo; Silva, Teresa; Souto, Javier; Triay-Portella, Raül; Wirtz, Peter; Xavier, Joana R.; Bastida-Zavala, Rolando; Bellou, Nikoleta; Gueroun, Sonia K. M.; Monteiro, João G.The mesophotic zone represents one of our planet's largest and least explored biomes. An increasing number of studies evidence the importance of macrofouling species in marine ecosystems, but information on these communities and the factors influencing their structures at mesophotic depths remain poor. This lack of understanding limits our ability to predict anthropogenic impacts or conduct restoration operations in the mesophotic and the lower boundary of the euphotic zones. In this study, we performed a 24-month experiment in a natural environment to investigate three factors influencing the macrobenthic community structure of the mesophotic and the euphotic lower boundary: depth, substrate orientation and substrate material. Using a manned submersible, several recruitment panels of two different materials were deployed at 100, 200 and 400 meters in vertical and horizontal positions. All three factors contributed to structuring the macrofouling communities, but depth and substrate orientation displayed the strongest effects. This study not only advances our understanding of lower boundary euphotic and mesophotic macrofouling communities but also establishes a foundation for future research and restoration efforts of mesophotic environments in the Madeira archipelago, where mesophotic habitats are amongst the least studied marine habitats in the Northeast Atlantic.