The role of sponge competition in cold-water coral reefs - ROV video analyses and secondary metabolite profiling

珊瑚礁对气候调节、食物和能源供应、生物勘探和文化服务的潜力都很重要。与热带珊瑚礁不同，冷水珊瑚(CWC)可以在黑暗中生长，生长缓慢，依靠自己捕捉食物。由于珊瑚礁生物的生态相互作用(竞争、共生)和生物勘探的研究仍然很少。这个跨学科的为期4年的博士项目将通过整合来自(A)长期遥控运载器(ROV)视频数据超过十年的数据，(B)次生代谢物图谱，(C)微生物DNA图谱，寻找与医学和生态相关的化合物。挪威CWC Tisler珊瑚礁拥有高密度的海绵M.langua，推测之前的拖网破坏已经削弱了珊瑚礁，并给予海绵一个竞争优势，现在似乎在珊瑚礁上长得过多。然而，没有证据表明这一点，相反，已知海绵提供和回收营养物质，使CWC珊瑚礁受益。ROV视频将被用来观察海绵生长模式的长期时空变化。这将与作为ASSEMBLE PLUS AmpLOPHELIA项目一部分收集的海绵次级代谢物(代谢组)的数据结合在一起，以及次级代谢物是否为海绵提供竞争优势。海绵的代谢组将使用液-质联用和MS-MS网络进行分析。将收集更多的样本，以显示代谢物在空间和时间上的变化。将识别独特的代谢物簇，分离化合物，并使用光谱方法确定结构。这将允许在各种生态和医学上相关的生物测试中对化合物的生物活性进行评估，并为未来对舌根结线虫的化学生态学研究铺平道路。海绵微生物组将通过分离海绵微生物组的元基因组并使用相关的引物分析DNA，然后进行测序和生物信息学分析来进行分析。元基因组和代谢组的变化将使我们能够得出结论，哪些因素使这块海绵成功，并允许未来在这个问题上进行假设驱动的实地研究。这个博士项目将由Marcel Jaspars教授和Laurence de Clippele博士指导。Marcel Jaspars是一位海洋生物勘探专家，他在动物模型(癌症、阿尔茨海默氏症、癫痫)或获得专利并获得工业许可(细菌感染)的动物模型中发现了几种海洋衍生化合物。他将在该项目的代谢组学、元基因组学、化合物分离和鉴定方面提供监督。劳伦斯是冷水珊瑚礁生态和视频分析方面的专家，并在蒂斯勒珊瑚礁工作过丰富的经验。她将对数据和视频分析的生态解释提供监督。该项目在以下方面提供多学科培训：1)海绵生态与图像分析；元基因组学和生物信息学；3)利用LC-MS/MS和统计学方法进行代谢组学研究；次生代谢物化学和光谱学。

Coral Reefs are important for climate regulation, food and energy supply their potential for bioprospecting and cultural services. Unlike tropical coral reefs, cold-water corals (CWC) can grow in the dark, are slow growing and rely on catching food themselves. Due to their remote and inaccessible nature, studies on the ecological interactions (competition, symbiosis) and bioprospecting of CWC reef organisms remain scarce.This interdisciplinary 4 year-long PhD project will investigate the ecological role of the sponge Mycale lingua by integrating data from (a) long term Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) video data spanning over ten years, (b) secondary metabolite profiling, (c) microbiome DNA profiling, in the search for compounds of medical and ecological relevance.The Norwegian CWC Tisler Reef has high densities present of the sponge M. lingua and it is speculated that previous trawl damage has weakened the reef and gave a competitive advantage to the sponges, now seemingly overgrowing the reef. However, there is no evidence on this and instead sponges are known to provide and recycle nutrients that benefit CWC reefs. ROV videos will be used to look at long term spatial and temporal changes in the growth pattern of the sponges. This will be integrated with data on the secondary metabolite profile (metabolome) from sponges collected as part of the ASSEMBLE Plus AmpLOPHELIA project and whether the secondary metabolites provide the sponge with a competitive advantage.The metabolome of sponges will be analysed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and MS-MS networking. Additional samples will be collected to show the variation of the metabolome in space and time. Unique clusters of metabolites will be identified, and the compounds isolated, and structures determined using spectroscopic methods. This will then allow the evaluation of the bioactivity of the compounds in a variety of ecologically and medically relevant biological assays and pave the way for future chemical ecology studies on M. lingua. The sponge microbiome will be analysed by isolating the metagenome of the sponge microbiome and analysing the DNA using the relevant primers followed by sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. Variations in the metagenome and metabolome will enable conclusions to be drawn about the which factors have made this sponge successful and allow future hypothesis driven field research on this question.This PhD project will be supervised by Prof Marcel Jaspars and Dr Laurence De Clippele. Marcel Jaspars is an expert in marine bioprospecting and has discovered several marine derived compounds with activity in animal models (Cancer, Alzheimer's, Epilepsy) or patented and licenced to industry (bacterial infection). He will provide supervision in the metabolomics, metagenomics, compound isolation and identification aspects of the project. Laurence is an expert in cold-water coral reef ecology and video analyses and has extensive experience working at the Tisler reef. She will provide supervision on the ecological interpretation of the data and the video analyses. This project offers multidisciplinary training in: 1.) Sponge ecology and image analysis; 2.) Metagenomics and bioinformatics; 3.) Metabolomics using LC-MS/MS and statistical methods; 4.) Secondary metabolite chemistry and spectroscopy.