Does the microbial community play a role in the different colour morphs of the breadcrumb sponge Halichondria panicea?

Does the microbial community play a role in the different colour morphs of the breadcrumb sponge Halichondria panicea? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Does the microbial community play a role in the different colour morphs of the breadcrumb sponge Halichondria panicea? Sakinah Husain Alhaddad, Gary Caldwell, Anthony Clare This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4338287/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Halichondria panicea has two different seasonal colours, green and yellow, which may reflect the effect of temperature on the abundance of green microalgal species. There is, however, no definitive identification of the strain responsible for the colour change. This question was addressed by metagenomic analysis of the 16S and 18S rRNA V4 regions and comparison of chlorophyll fluorescence of the two colour morphs by epifluorescence microscopy. H. panicea samples were collected for analysis in four seasons in 2022 along the Northumberland coast, North East England. The chlorophyll concentration in green sponges was higher than in yellow sponges. Moreover, the bacterial and cyanobacterial abundance, diversity, and predicted bacterial functions were significantly higher in the green morph. The eukaryotic community in green sponges contained an abundance of specific green microalgal genera and higher eukaryotic abundance. Interestingly, yellow sponges had a higher abundance of golden-brown dinoflagellates known as the Dino-Group-I-Clade-I genus. These dinoflagellates exhibit parasitic behaviour in marine organisms. It is suggested, therefore, that the yellow colour is a sign of a diseased H. panicea rather than a seasonal colour morph. A comprehensive analysis of 16S and 18S rRNA sequences from sponge samples and their predicted functions provided a deeper understanding of sponge colour variations. Halichondria panicea sponge colour microbiome cyanobacteria 16S rRNA 18S rRNA metagenomics bioinformatics. Full Text Supplementary Files Supplementarymaterial.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4338287","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":300836694,"identity":"4f4e6636-0c62-4255-9eb7-5c06f1c7deed","order_by":0,"name":"Sakinah Husain Alhaddad","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2805-5778","institution":"Newcastle University Faculty of Science Agriculture and Engineering","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sakinah","middleName":"Husain","lastName":"Alhaddad","suffix":""},{"id":300836695,"identity":"dcbd4c80-ca6e-431f-8a4b-9e714e36d9fd","order_by":1,"name":"Gary Caldwell","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Newcastle University Faculty of Science Agriculture and Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gary","middleName":"","lastName":"Caldwell","suffix":""},{"id":300836696,"identity":"7574735d-8e3c-4c2d-a553-b769a9709817","order_by":2,"name":"Anthony Clare","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Newcastle University Faculty of Science Agriculture and Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anthony","middleName":"","lastName":"Clare","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-04-28 14:20:21","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4338287/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4338287/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":57208266,"identity":"c3f2fed7-d942-4537-850d-65d2b7e88521","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-05-27 11:44:48","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1574255,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"H.paniceacolourmorphsChapter4MarineBiology.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4338287/v1_covered_9bf75548-dd32-4267-a8f6-5dddc9303dce.pdf"},{"id":56797995,"identity":"b9e40240-fbfe-447e-80a4-dceaaf0daea3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-05-20 15:09:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":14,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":320113,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarymaterial.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4338287/v1/62fdc4ebbfc8e40721a0b261.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Does the microbial community play a role in the different colour morphs of the breadcrumb sponge Halichondria panicea?","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Halichondria panicea, sponge colour, microbiome, cyanobacteria, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, metagenomics, bioinformatics.","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4338287/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4338287/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Halichondria panicea has two different seasonal colours, green and yellow, which may reflect the effect of temperature on the abundance of green microalgal species. 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