Nitrifying symbionts of a marine sponge
Ammonia-oxidizing archaea and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria are common members of marine sponge microbiomes. They derive energy for growth and carbon fixation from nitrification - the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite and further to nitrate. In this study, we characterize two nitrifying lineages associated with the marine sponge Coscinoderma matthewsi. Both lineages represent a new genus in the ammonia-oxidizing archaeal class Nitrososphaeria and the nitrite-oxidizing bacterial order Nitrospirales. We have tentatively named them 'Ca. Nitrosokoinonia' and 'Ca. Nitrosymbion', respectively. Sequencing was performed at the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna under the project IDs JMF-2203-05 and JMF-2305-01 .