Frontiers in Marine Science (Jun 2014)
Culture of marine sponges with potential applications in Aquaculture and Biotechnology
Abstract
The marine environment represents more than two thirds of our planet, however, it is still underexplored. Even still, marine habitats are a promising source of commercially significant biotechnological products. In fact, marine organisms have been recognized as having an important role on the discovery of new bioactive molecules. Among these, sponges exhibit a great diversity of secondary metabolites, which they produce and accumulate. The intention in this study was to establish the principles of maintenance of sponges in captivity, in order to give them further use. Therefore, the culture potential of the sponge Dysidea fragilis (Demospongiae) was evaluated, with the intent of using them in different areas, such as Biotechnology and Aquaculture. In Biotechnology, they can serve either as source of probiotics, or as source of extracts for the search of compounds with biological activity. The utilities one can give to such organisms are to use their biocompounds as potential probiotics in animal feed, such as for nudibranchs. Both sponges and nudibranchs, are animals much appreciated in aquariophilia, but most difficult to maintain in captivity. In this study, the sponges were collected from the sea bottom in the surrounding areas of Peniche (central western coast of Portugal), by scuba diving. They were sealed in plastic zip bags during transportation to the surface and laboratory, to avoid air contact, which they are not able to endure. They were maintained in a closed water circulation system, transplanted into artificial substrates of plastic and fed every two days, with a mixed solution of microalgae Nanochloropsis salina culture and faeces of gilt-head sea bream (Sparus aurata). As this species is susceptible to the light, half of the tanks of the culture system were protected with a black cloth and the other half were submitted to an acclimation process to this factor, in order for them to be used in aquariophilia. The sponges dimension and weight were assessed. The establishment of an efficient culture strategy will allow to use sponges as ornamental organism, as well as a diet for other interesting commercial species (also potentially as probiotics), or even as source of extracts for different biotechnology fields.
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