Preliminary Data of an Ecological System of Chinese Boxes: the Raspaciona Aculeata Model

Abstract Book of the 6th World Conference on Climate Change and Global Warming

Year: 2025

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Preliminary Data of an Ecological System of Chinese Boxes: the Raspaciona Aculeata Model

Alessia Lunetta, Gabriella Caruso, Salvatore Giacobbe, Simone Cappello, Gina La Spada, Enzo Messina, Maria Genovese

ABSTRACT:

Sponges (phylum Porifera) are filter-feeding organisms essential to the balance of aquatic ecosystems and represent a major source of marine microbial biodiversity. They host complex and highly specific bacterial communities that play key roles in nutrient cycling, chemical defense, and host survival. These symbiotic bacteria are known to produce a wide range of bioactive metabolites and enzymes with potential biomedical, environmental, and industrial applications, making sponges an important natural biotechnological resource. This study represents a preliminary result, focuses on the interactions between bacteria and higher organisms, with particular attention to the sponge Raspaciona aculeata collected from Faro Lake (Messina, Italy), a transitional coastal environment characterized by unique physicochemical conditions and moderate anthropogenic influence. The research aimed to identify the symbiotic bacterial communities associated with R. aculeata and to investigate their ecological roles within the host–environment relationship. Bacteria were isolated and taxonomically characterized through NGS sequencing (V3- V4 region) gene sequencing, revealing a diverse microbial consortium potentially involved in nutrient transformation, defense mechanisms, and adaptation to environmental stressors. Several isolates exhibited enzymatic and hydrocarbon-degrading activities, suggesting a possible biotechnological potential for applications in bioremediation and sustainable biotechnology. Overall, these findings contribute to a better understanding of sponge, microbe symbiosis in transitional ecosystems and highlight the ecological importance and applied relevance of microbial diversity associated with R. aculeata. In the context of climate change and global warming, the study of these microbial associations becomes increasingly valuable for developing nature-based strategies for environmental monitoring and restoration.

Keywords: Bacterial Diversity, Microbial Symbiosis, Raspaciona Aculeata, Sponge, Transitional Ecosystems