Species-specific community structure in the microbiomes and eukaryotic communities associated with Mediterranean golf ball sponges

Background Sponges harbor complex and diverse microbiomes that contribute to the host’s fitness and, ultimately, the health of the ecosystems sponges inhabit. Methods Using high-throughput 16S and 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we explore the prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities associated with three sympatric Mediterranean demosponges, namely Tethya aurantium , Tethya meloni , and Tethya citrina . Results We found species-specific prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities despite the close sympatry of the three Mediterranean Tethya species studied. This offers further support for the phylogenetic nature of the sponge microbiome, where microbial communities reflect the evolutionary ancestry of their host species. These patterns are both present in the eukaryotic and prokaryotic sponge-associated communities, since both display similar levels of host species specificity.