Porifera Research: Biodiversity, Innovation and Sustainability - 2007 239 How and why do sponges incorporate foreign material? Strategies in Porifera Carlo Cerrano(1*), Barbara Calcinai(2), Cristina Gioia Di Camillo(2), Laura Valisano(1), Giorgio Bavestrello(2) Dipartimento per lo studio del Territorio e delle sue Risorse, C.so Europa, 26, 16132, Genova, Italy. [email protected], [email protected] (2) Dipartimento di Scienze del Mare, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131, Ancona, Italy. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (1) Abstract: The selection and incorporation of foreign materials in sponges is a complex phenomenon: it involves both a system of recognition of pinacocytes versus sand grain mineralogy and a system of coordination among cells, which transport and engulf particles in specific areas of the sponge surface. Concerning the mineralogical characteristic of the incorporated particles, it seems that quartz particles, when incorporated, could play an important role in collagen production. Among incorporating species, two different modalities can be defined, depending on the habit of the species: i) soft-bottom species (e.g. genera Oceanapia, Tectitethya, Cliona) engulf particles mainly from the base of their body and select mainly the size of particles independently from their mineralogical characteristics; engulfed particles, due to their weight, help the sponge to stabilize and to “anchor“ to the soft substrate; ii) in hard-bottom species (e.g. genera Chondrosia and Ircinia) ectosome pinacocytes select particles, in relation to their size and mineralogy, and may incorporate them differently in some areas of their body according to their skeletal arrangement. Keywords: Porifera, selectivity, sediment incorporation, foreign inclusions, mineralogy Introduction Marine organisms, particularly in benthic environments, have to coexist with a continuous sediment rain and have adapted to this phenomenon in several ways (Miller et al. 2002). They can react cleaning their surface, more or less actively, or by trying to exploit sediments to feed or to build protective and/or structural elements. Several organisms like protists (Takahashi and Ling 1984), sponges (Teragawa 1986, Cerrano et al. 1999a), cnidarians (Haywick and Mueller 1997) annelids (Wilson 1974, Main and Nelson 1988), molluscs (Min-Da 1984), crustaceans (Dixon and Moore 1997, Krasnow and Taghon 1997), echinoderms (Massin and Doumen 1986), and tunicates (Kott 2006) are able to use foreign material as a cover, to protect or mask their body, building thecae, coats, tubes or other structures. Among Porifera and Cnidaria there are examples of species able to incorporate particles into their body. It’s generally assumed that this strategy is performed to strengthen the skeleton but the real meaning of it and the related mechanisms are often unclear (Teragawa 1986). One of the most debated problems regarding this phenomenon is if organisms are able to select foreign bodies or if they utilise every kind of particle available in the surrounding environment. Generally this behaviour is regulated by the ability of organisms to “handle” particles so that a physical limit related to the particle size has to be always considered. The most intriguing aspect is the ability of some species to recognise the mineral characteristics of the particles and therefore to select them (Bavestrello et al. 1996). The aim of this paper is to review the incorporation of foreign bodies in sponges, comparing the strategies of species living on soft and hard substrates and suggesting possible physical and biological explanations for this intriguing behaviour. Soft-bottom sponges Even if sponges typically live on hard substrates, there are several species more or less adapted to soft bottom environments. These may live loose on the sediment often partially or completely buried in it and survive well thanks to some very special adaptations, which limit sponge rolling and occlusion of aquiferous system by sand. On soft substrates it is possible to observe sponge fragments which occasionally may fall from coral or rocky reefs due to the production of asexual reproductive bodies and/or fragments, breakage during storms, localised infections by pathogens, or predator bites (Wulff 1985, Battershill and Bergquist 1990). The survival of unattached fragments depends on their ability to re-settle in a short span of time to avoid clogging by sediments (Ilan and Abelson 1995). For these fragments the incorporation of large amount of foreign bodies is crucial to assume a gravimetric polarity which allows them to stabilize and reorganize their aquiferous system. 240 We can classify soft bottom sponges into three main groups according to their adaptative strategies: i) sponges living on the sediment surface, ii) sponges partially buried, iii) sponges with the body completely buried, with particular anatomic adaptations. Sponges on the sediment surface Here we consider sponges that do not live exclusively on soft substrates but that can easily survive on soft substrates, fully regaining their vital functions. These non-sessile specimens have been generally found in shallow sub-littoral environments (Mercurio et al. 2006, Bell and Barnes 2002) and in the deep sea (Barthel and Tendal 1993). Examples of this habit can be found in lagoon environments (Ise et al. 2004, Mercurio et al. 2006), where several sponge fragments, often from species living typically on hard substrates, can be present. In studies performed in the Caribbean (Cerrano et al. 2004) and the Indonesian (Cerrano et al. 2002) lagoons, the comparison between environmental sediments and the particles incorporated by several sponge species shows that they mainly contain the fraction larger than 5 mm. Only a few species use the fractions available in the surrounding substrates without size preferences. The percentage of incorporated sediments can be highly variable, between 5 and 99% per sponge dry weight. A particular case concerns the gamma stage of Cliona nigricans, an excavating Atlanto-Mediterranean sponge living symbiotically with zooxanthellae that can grow with different shapes: endolithic, into coralligenous accretions, and massive, laid on detritic sediments (Fig. 1A). This species can engulf from the base (Fig. 1B) huge amounts of foreign material, up to 99% of its dry weight, being also able to store the fraction of sediment larger than 5 mm (Calcinai et al. 1999). Moreover, experimental data indicated that in this species the mineralogical features of the engulfed particles can affect morphogenetic processes, in particular quartz negatively affects the growth of C. nigricans specimens limiting the development of the oscula in the basal portion of the sponge that is in direct contact with the grains. On the contrary, oscula have been observed in specimens living on calcareous sand (Cerrano et al. 2007), highlighting once again the importance of substrate chemical composition on benthic organism distribution and development (Cerrano et al. 1999b, Bavestrello et al. 2003). In massive specimens of C. nigricans, the aquiferous system opens on the sediment using a water expulsion mechanisms similar to the one described for Spheciospongia cuspidifera in Belize (Rützler 1997). Sponges partially buried in sediments Several species can live on soft substrates even without morphological adaptations to this environment. Tectitethya crypta is a massive, shallow-water sponge common in the Caribbean and frequently covered by a sediment and/ or algal coat, both on hard and soft bottoms. In lagoon environments this sponge can occur either loose or anchored, significantly varying its morphology (Cerrano et al. 2004). This species incorporates all the granulometric size classes of nearby benthic sediments, using them in different ways. In the choanosome, sediments are sorted and distributed according to their size: fine sediments (40-60 µm) are densely aggregated in the choanosome, whereas coarse particles are more evenly distributed in the lower portion of the body were they contribute to the stability of the sponge (Fig. 1C). Qualitatively, the choanosomal aggregations of fine sediment contain more siliceous material than the ambient sediment of the same size class. Microscopical analysis of the particles shows that this species selects and incorporates allocthonous sponge spicules, radiolarians and diatoms (Cerrano et al. 2004). Another interesting species is Biemna fortis, living in tropical lagoons in North Sulawesi (Indonesia). This sponge displays two different growth patterns depending on the thickness of unconsolidated sediments: when the sediment layer is thick, the sponge assumes a cylindrical form and incorporation is low; when there is a thin sediment layer the sponge adheres to the basal coral rock, developing a massive buried portion that is generally rich in embedded particles (Cerrano et al. 2002). Sponges specialised to psammobiontic habit All the known species of the genus Oceanapia live on soft substrates thanks to the ability of producing long fistules that anchor the sponge body to the loose substrate and discharge waste-water deep into the sediments (Werding and Sanchez 1991, Bavestrello et al. 2002). The specialisation of this genus to soft substrates is evidenced also by the differential production of secondary metabolites used as antipredatory that are synthesised exclusively in the exposed portions in O. sagittaria, suggesting that sediments are not just a mere substrate where sponges can live with low competition but also a refuge from potential predators (Schupp et al. 1999, Salomon et al. 2001). In lagoons O. amboinensis lives buried in unconsolidated sediments among sea grasses. The sponge develops a massive body and emerges from the sediment through numerous closed fistules. The sponge body is whitish, while the portions protruding from the sediment take an olive green colour. The buried portion of the body incorporates a high quantity of foreign materials, selecting particles larger than 2 mm, throughout the pinacoderm. Only exhalant areas, of 1-4 cm2, do not participate in this process (Cerrano et al. 2002, Bavestrello et al. 2002). Oceanapia fistulosa lives from 15-20 m depth down to at least 80 m, grows partially buried in detritic sediment (Fig. 1D). The globular sponge body, 5-15 cm in diameter, bears on its upper side several closed cylindrical fistules that emerge from the sediment generally covered by epibionts. On the other side, other buried closed fistules are strongly rooted in the sediments. The buried portion of the sponge incorporates a lot of foreign material such as sand, coral and shell fragments, particularly on the rooted fistules, which can reach a length of 15-20 cm and 1 cm in diameter, depending on the thickness and the granulometry of the unconsolidated sediments. In fine sediments this species, to 241 Fig. 1: Examples from soft-bottoms sponges. A. Specimen of Cliona nigricans living on detritic substrates. B. Detail of the lower face of the sponge with several rocks having highly variable sizes. The fraction bigger than 5 mm is more abundant in the sponge than in the ambient sediments. Arrows indicate oscular openings. C. Half cut specimen of Tectitethya crypta. White arrows indicate aggregations of fine sediments, black arrow indicates coarse sediments. D. Drawing of Oceanapia fistulosa with the buried body mass covered by sand grains. 242 get stabilization, produces more rooted fistules, smaller in diameter but longer than those in coarse sediments. Hard-bottom sponges Burial/smothering, scour/abrasion, and changes in the physical characteristics of the substrate surface are the three main mechanisms by which sediments may affect benthic assemblages (Airoldi 2003). On hard substrates sedimentation is partly due to particles suspended in the water column and partly due to the detritus that rolls down vertical cliffs (Bavestrello et al. 1995a). This may cause mechanical damages in sponges and other benthic filter feeders, especially by clogging the aquiferous system impeding filtration. A solution to avoid sedimentation is generally represented by the colonisation of substrates under overhangs, but in this situation sponges have to compete with many other sessile animals that share the same strategy. Other organisms choose to grow vertically, limiting the surface available for sediments as happens for several species of the genera Axinella or Dysidea (Fig. 2A). Other species can clean their pinacoderm using superficial cellular movements (Bond 1992) that can easily either remove or take up several kinds of particles transforming the problem of sediments into an opportunity to providing a physical support to the skeletal development (Fig. 2B). According to Teragawa (1986) the sediment that settles on the surface of Dysidea etheria may follow different pathways being i) inhalated through ostia, ii) eliminated by transport or through dermal membrane oscillations or mucus sloughing, iii) incorporated into primary fibres, and iv) engulfed into secondary fibres in case the sponge is overloaded by sediments. When sediments are incorporated into spongin fibres it is possible to consider this localization as definitive but, on the contrary, a turnover was described for the sediments engulfed in the cortex of Chondrosia reniformis (Cerrano et al. 1999a). This species, presenting a collagenous structure and lacking its own spicules and spongin fibres, when anchored to a substrate, is able to incorporate foreign material, discerning from crystalline quartz sand grains and amorphous siliceous opaline spicules (Bavestrello et al. 1998a, 1998b). Laboratory experiments have shown that the cells of the sponge ectosome play a key role in the selection processes: quartz particles are incorporated while carbonatic particles are agglutinated and drop out from the sponge ectosome. In C. reniformis specimens anchored to the substrate, the upper ectosome can distinguish between silica and carbonates, ability lost in free, non-attached individuals, which incorporate both. This behavior indicates that specific receptors are present and can distinguish among the different mineralogical features of the sediment. Depending on the environmental conditions this mechanism can be switched on or off (Bavestrello et al. 1998b). The turnover of particles inside the body of C. reniformis is due to the ability of this sponge to dissolve quartz crystals releasing silicate (Bavestrello et al. 1995b). In C. reniformis the amount of incorporated sediment was used as a character to separate different species (Wiedenmayer 1977) while in dictyoceratid sponges the presence of sediment in fibres or as a dermal crust is considered as a character to distinguish between different genera (Vacelet 1959). Nevertheless, Pronzato et al. (2004) considered the amount of mineral granules a specific character to distinguish Ircinia felix from I. variabilis. The evidence of a specific and fine tuned mechanism to select particles, according to their mineralogical features, suggests that a mineralogical and granulometric analysis of incorporated sediments may represent a tool for the classification of problematic taxonomic groups. The genus Ircinia is characterised by spongin fibres cored with foreign debris. In an unpublished investigation we have compared the foreign bodies incorporated by two sympatric species of Ircinia (I. variabilis and I. retidermata) inhabiting two different areas. Results show that part of the sediment is included into growing fibres, probably definitively, while another portion is incorporated into the choanosomal tissue where it is subjected to a quick turn over. In both species, the material incorporated into fibers and the one engulfed in the choanosomal tissue are different. Ircinia variabilis incorporated sponge spicules and sand grains in the same proportion both in the ectosome and in the mesohyl (here considered as choanosome excluding fibres). Spongin fibres include almost only sand grains (Fig. 2C-F). Ircinia retidermata has a more homogeneous ectosomal coat of quartz grains. The amounts of ectosomal sediments allowed the determination of interspecific differences while choanosomal ones (not considering spongin fibres) are affected by local sedimentation rates, so that differences at intraspecific and interspecific level can be similar and not useful for species classification. Discussion Sediment incorporation is a widespread aptitude in sponges and is observed in species belonging to different not-related groups (Fig. 3). On the contrary in cnidarians the incorporation of sediment occurs only in the order Zoanthidaea. With this exception, several other metazoans use foreign bodies to build external protective structures, but no one is able to incorporate foreign bodies in their tissues. In sponges and cnidarians particles are embedded in the collagenous mesohyl/mesoglea, and spongin fibres and their incorporation is mediated by the interaction with dermal cells. In the incorporation processes the most intriguing aspects relate to the ability of selecting the mineral features and the size of the foreign bodies and their transport to definite areas. Sediment selection based on mineral composition is not exclusive of hard-bottom sponges but can occur after stable anchoring also in sponges living on soft bottoms as described in Tectitethya crypta. On hard bottoms, Ircinia retidermata Fig. 2: Examples from hard-bottoms sponges. A. Dysidea avara specimen in its natural environment. B. Detail of the ectosome with accumulation of sediments on the tip of conules. C. Detail of the ectosome of Ircinia variabilis. D. Drawing of a section of I. variabilis. E. Drawing of a single conule of I. variabilis with detail of a primary fibre and sediment coat. F. Electron micrograph of a conule of I. variabilis. 243 244 Fig. 3: Sponges living both on hard and soft bottoms can incorporate sediment in a selective way or not. The soft bottom sponges that are specialised to live in unconsolidated sediments (ex. Oceanapia spp.) get true stabilization via peculiar morphological adaptations. In this case incorporation can be selective towards particles size. Unanchored sponges incorporate without selection until they stabilize, then their behaviour can become selective. Fixed hard bottom sponges have a selective behaviour both vs. particles mineralogy and/or size. Unselective behaviour is generally related to stabilization, selection towards particles size can be related to stabilization and/or skeletal growth, selection towards mineralogy may be related to some biological need. selects particles, organising quartz grains with homogeneous size in the ectosome. Although there is some evidence that in Cliona nigricans the incorporated quartz particles negatively affect the sponge growth, the sponge incorporates these particles indiscriminately if they are present in the surrounding sediments. In Chondrosia reniformis the mineral discrimination of the upper ectosome may be switched on by the adhesion of the sponge to the substrate. When attached, the upper side collects quartz and silicates while the lower bottom side specifically engulfs the calcareous particles, thus helping the sponge to attach to the substrate. When unattached, the sponge does not select and incorporates with modalities that resemble those described for soft bottom species, being its priority the stabilisation and a new polarity. This is a puzzling behaviour because it is not easy to understand why a sponge selects and engulfs particles to dissolve them. A possible explanation was suggested by the evidence that the expression of the gene for collagen was found to be dependent on the silicate concentration (Krasko et al. 2000, Nickel and Brümmer 2003). In this way the induction of collagen production by quartz dissolution may be hypothesised (Bavestrello et al. 2003). In soft-substrates specimens, selection is mainly dimensional. Several sponge species living on soft substrates select from the environmental sediment mainly the larger granulometric fractions. Incorporation happens in two ways: i) pinacocytes may recognise and incorporate only the larger particles fraction; ii) the pinacoderm may engulf sediment of all available size classes and subsequently sort them within the mesohyl, selecting the larger particles and expelling the smaller ones. In both cases a selection mechanism at the cellular level has to be hypothesised. This ability is particularly evident in Tectitethya crypta because of the presence of two even more different ways to handle fine 245 and coarse sediments. Fine sediments are concentrated in the nuclei within the sponge body while coarse grains are moved to the base of the sponge to anchor and stabilize by gravity. The incorporated sediment is used for very different purposes in different species. Soft-bottom sponges generally use foreign bodies to anchor and to gain a gravimetric polarity. This stability allows the sponge to (re)organise its aquiferous system in the most efficient way. Hard-bottom sponges use foreign bodies to reinforce their skeletal structure but this structural use is not the only possible. The case of Chondrosia indicates that this species is able to metabolise quartz, with possible effects on the metabolism of collagen. These data can lead to the hypothesis that in sponges with a skeleton structured by a spongine net the inclusion of particles in the growing fibres could stimulate the production of spongine. Particle selection and handling has to be related to the self/ non-self recognition mechanisms in sponges. Even if sponges lack a specific immune system, several cellular processes can enable discrimination between true symbionts from potential pathogenic microorganisms (Steindler et al. 2007) or develop a sort of primitive short-term immune memory, as evidenced by allografts (Bigger et al. 1982). Recognition mechanisms are modulated by sponge condition, attached or unattached to a substrate (Bavestrello et al. 1998b). Several studies suggest that the allorecognition system may change during ontogeny and this aspect is generally considered in the case of chimeric sponges (Maldonado 1998, McGhee 2006). The fusion among different sponge species in adult phase may help in stabilizing rolling sponges (Cerrano et al. 2004), and could be related to the loss of selectivity evidenced in unanchored specimens. In conclusion the use of sediments depends on the habit of the species and can be selective (when sponges are stable on the substrate) or not (when sponges are not stable). Moreover, the mineralogical composition of particles can affect sponge growth, in particular quartz that, depending on the species, can enhance or limit this process. Acknowledgements Authors are indebted with Marzia Sidri (Porifarma, Wageningen) and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. This paper comes from a lecture hold in the framework of the Biologisches Kolloquium Wintersemester at the Universitaet of Stuttgart. 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