Coral reefs are facing increasing pressure from rising seawater temperatures and ocean acidification. Sponges have been proposed as possible winners in the face of climate change; however, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning their predicted tolerance. Here we assessed whether microbiome‐mediated cross‐generational acclimatization could enable the photosynthetic sponge Carteriospongia foliascens to survive under future climate scenarios. To achieve this, we first established the potential for vertical (cross‐generational) transmission of symbionts. Sixty‐four amplicon sequence variants accounting for >90% of the total C. foliascens microbial community were present across adult, larval and juvenile life stages, showing that a large proportion of the microbiome is vertically acquired and maintained. When C. foliascens were exposed to climate scenarios projected for 2050 and 2100, the host remained visibly unaffected (i.e. no necrosis/bleaching) and the overall microbiome was not significantly different amongst treatments in adult tissue, the respective larvae or recruits transplanted amongst climate treatments. However, indicator species analysis revealed that parental exposure to future climate scenarios altered the presence and abundance of a small suite of microbial taxa in the recruits, thereby revealing the potential for microbiome‐mediated cross‐generational acclimatization through both symbiont shuffling and symbiont switching within a vertically acquired microbiome.

中文翻译：

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气候变化对光合海绵微生物组的跨代影响。

海水温度升高和海洋酸化使珊瑚礁面临越来越大的压力。面对气候变化，海绵被认为是可能的赢家。然而，对于支撑其预测耐受性的机制知之甚少。在这里，我们评估了微生物组介导的跨世代驯化能否使光合海绵Carteriospongia foliascens能够在未来的气候情景下生存。为此，我们首先建立了共生体垂直（跨代）传播的潜力。64个扩增子序列变异体，占叶状念珠菌总数的> 90％在成年，幼虫和幼年期的生命中都存在微生物群落，这表明很大一部分微生物组是垂直获得和维持的。当C. foliascens它们暴露于预计在2050年和2100年的气候情景下，宿主仍未受到明显影响（即没有坏死/漂白），并且在成人组织，各个幼虫或新近移植的气候处理之间，总体微生物组没有显着差异。然而，指标物种分析显示，父母对未来气候情景的接触改变了新兵中一小套微生物分类群的存在和丰度，从而揭示了通过微生物共生改组和共生体转换在微生物组介导的跨世代适应中的潜力。垂直获取的微生物组。