Sponge-associated bacteria of Lakshadweep coral reefs, India: resource for extracellular hydrolytic enzymes
Abstract
Sponges (Phylum: Porifera) is one of the major groups in the Lakshadweep coral reefs. These sponges harbor diverse bacteria with metabolic potentiality. From biodiversity to biotechnological prospecting, scientific investigations related to sponge associated microorganisms have expanded, but remain rather limited to few geographic locations. In this study, culturable bacteria associated with two demosponges viz Dysidea granulosa, Sigmadocia fibulata and the ambient water were screened for commercially important enzymes such as amylase, protease, gelatinase, lipase, deoxyribonucleic, phos-phatase and urease. Amylase and phosphatase were the predominant enzymes produced by more than 80% of sponge-associated bacteria compared to the ambient water. Nearly 50% of the sponge-associated bacteria expressed multiple enzymatic activities (greater than equal to 4) with variation in the percentage of expression of individ-ual enzymes. More than 65% of the culturable het-erotrophic bacteria associated with sponges were Gammaproteobacteria. The order Vibrionales was the main source for multiple enzyme production. Sponge associated bacteria formed more closely re-lated clusters than the water isolates based upon their activity pattern. High recovery of sponge-associated bacteria with multiple enzymatic activities suggest that these versatile bacteria are yet unexploited potential for bioprospecting.
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