Abstract
In the tropics, the marine sponge Dysidea janiae lives in obligatory symbiosis with the red macroalga Jania adhaerens. However, how this symbiosis is achieved, and how it influences the reproduction of the sponge is still unknown. We analysed the influence of environmental variables on the gametogenesis and embryogenesis of the sponge. We also investigated the histology of the reproductive propagules of the sponge over 3 years, aiming to understand how this symbiosis is established. Dysidea janiae is viviparous and gonochoristic, with a continuous but small reproductive effort. The reproductive dynamics of gametes and embryos were explained by different sets of environmental variables. Although the temperature was not directly related to the reproduction of the sponge in general, there was an increase in the density of spermatic cysts during the year when the El Niño occurred. The day length was related to the embryo dynamics, which were interpreted as an indirect effect of the increase in photosynthetic rates of the symbiont on the energetic budget of the sponge. As no algal propagules were found associated with the eggs or larvae of the sponge, the acquisition of the algae by the sponge is probably a ‘trial-and-error’ relationship after larval release. We propose that the symbiosis increases the fitness of the adult sponge, forcing the larvae to seek new macroalgae to settle on and start a new symbiosis all over again.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Danyele Santos, Franciele Oliveira, Gustavo Kasper, Jéssica da Hora, Ubaldo Porto and Vivian Vasconcellos, all students of our lab (LEBR-UFBA) that helped in collecting the sponges during this study. We thank Guilherme Lessa for providing data on seawater temperature, José Marcos Nunes for the discussion about algal biology and development and Daniel Gonçalves-Souza for helping with the use of the statistics software. We also thank two anonymous reviewers that provided constructive comments on the manuscript. All biological material was collected in accordance to the Brazilian Environmental law, under the licence SISBIO/ICMBio/MMA n° 37036-2. Our lab is part of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (INCT IN-TREE).
Funding
This study was funded by the Brazilian National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq: 477227/2013-9), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB: JCB0014/2016) and PROPCI/PRODOC-UFBA. BC received fellowships of the Programa de Bolsas de Iniciação Científica (PIBIC) of UFBA.
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Cajado, B., Lanna, E. How can environmental variables affect the sexual reproduction of a tropical symbiotic sponge?. Mar. Biodivers. 51, 23 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01167-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01167-y