海绵及其共生微生物的生态多样性与重要性

Ecological diversity and importance of marine sponges and sponge-associated microorganisms

海绵是底栖生物群落中的重要成员,广泛分布于温带、热带及极地地区,其丰度、多样性及分布规律在不同地区有明显差异。海绵可能影响其它底栖生物及生态系统特征,因而在海洋生态系统中有多种功能作用。海绵不仅在海洋生态系统中起重要作用,而且能提供大量新颖的生物活性产物。大量研究显示多种微生物能寄生在海绵体内,在微生物与其寄主海绵之间可能存在互惠共生关系。文中对海绵的重要生态作用、生物多样性、与微生物的共生关系和作为新天然产物的资源进行了讨论。

Marine sponges are the important members of benthic community with obvious variation in their abundance, diversity and distribution ,widespread across temperate,tropical and polar regions.Sponges are likely to influence other benthic organisms and ecosystem characteristics and have a wide range of functional roles in marine ecosystems.Sponges not only play a key role in marine ecosystems, but also provide a large quantity of novel bioactive products. Many studies have showed that the diverse microorganisms can coexist in the host sponges and there maybe a mutualistic symbiosis relationship between microorganisms and their host sponges. The article attempted to represent the important ecology role of sponges, their biodiversity, associations with microorganisms,and as a source of novel natural products.