Dactylospongia_metachromia_microbiome

Description of the project: The sponge Dactylospongia metachromia is known to produce natural products of pharmacological interest, and a ongoing aquaculture program is aiming to grow and cultivate this sponge in French Polynesia To study the best conditions of aquaculture of the sponge during the farming, it is essential to consider it as an holobiont system since the microbiome could play an important role for the sponge growth, health, resilience to environmental disturbances, and production of natural products of interest To this end, the study aims to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics and stability of the prokaryotic community of the sponge model Dactylospongia metachromia.

Objective of the script: To analyse the 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding reads obtained from the DADA2 pipeline. The main package used for this analysis will be phyloseq (for more details see tutorials such as https://joey711.github.io/phyloseq/index.html)

Author of the script: Dr Benoît PAIX

Photographs of Dactylospongia metachromia collected for the farming trials. A and B. Excised wild individuals for the farming trial. C. Farming table. D, E, F and G Explants growing at T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively © Dr. Mathilde Maslin