Abstract

MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF MARINE SYMBIOTIC BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH SPONGES FROM THE WATER OFF THE COAST SOUTH EAST OF INDIA

Leelavathi M S*, Senthil Kumar and Vani L

ABSTRACT

The world’s oceans are covered by enormous number of phytochemical compounds. The diversity of marine organisms and habitats, marine natural products encompass a wide variety of chemical classes such as terpenes, polyketides, acetogenins, peptides and alkaloids of varying structures. In the present study four species of sponges (Echinodictyum sp, Spongia sp, Sigmadocia fibulatus and Mycale mannarensis) from a depth of 5–10m were collected by SCUBA diving at Hare Island, Tuticorin, South East coast of India. The sponge surface was sterilized one gram of sponge tissue was removed with a sterile scalpel and the tissue was immediately transferred to 99 ml sponge dissociation medium and the samples were plated on Zobell marine agar. Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of isolated colonies of the selected bacterial cultures were done using PCR studies and analyis was done using NCBI server.In the phylogenetic identification based on comparative sequence analysis of 16S rRNA, majority of the strains fell under the genera Vibrio and Bacillus with 95–98% sequence similarity.

Keywords: Sponges, Phytochemical compounds, PCR, rRNA sequence.