Petrosia: The Sexual Life of the Sponges

It has to be admitted that sponges are not one of the best-publicised of animal groups. Even when they are given some grudging mention, there is little reference to the variety of sponges that can be found on our planet. But don't go thinking that all sponges are the same.

Stony sponge Petrosia ficiformis, copyright Véronique Lamare.

Petrosia is a genus of sponges found in tropical and subtropical oceans around the world. Members of this genus come in a variety of forms: branching, cylindrical, globular, lamellate or bowl-shaped. They may reach large sizes, with some species up to a metre or two in diameter, though others may be much smaller. Most species are dark colours such as red, brown or black, though the Sulawesi species Petrosia alfiani is a bright canary yellow (de Voogd & van Soest 2002). The reasons for classifying such superficially divergent forms in a single genus lie beneath the surface. However, it has a high proportion of skeletal spicules to soft tissue, giving Petrosia species a hard, brittle texture (hence they are sometimes known as 'stony sponges'). The spicules of Petrosia are mostly long, slightly curved rods that may be rounded or pointed at the ends; they may be large or smaller, with smaller spicules tending to be more common closer to the sponge's surface. Two subgenera are recognised within Petrosia on the basis of whether the spicules are mostly in a tangential (subgenus Petrosia) or reticulate (Strongylophora) arrangement. The subgenus Petrosia is known from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, whereas Strongylophora species are found in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific (Desqueyroux-Faúndez & Valentine 2002).

Magnified view of surface of Petrosia ficiformis specimen, showing arrangement of spicules, from (Desqueyroux-Faúndez & Valentine (2002).

One of the best-studied species in this genus is the Mediterranean Petrosia ficiformis, which tends towards a cylindrical growth habit in sheltered spots. Like other sponges, P. ficiformis may provide an important habitat for other organisms. Smaller invertebrates live in and around the sponge, and molecular studies have shown that different sponge species tend to host their own distinct communities of bacteria. However, the niche provided by Petrosia in the Mediterranean can be vulnerable to damage: field observations have indicated that stony sponges grow exceedingly slowly. Maldonado & Riesgo (2009) found that in twenty years of diving off the Spanish coast, they saw almost no growth in individual sponges. When they took small (one by one-half centimetre) tissue samples from the sponges, it could take up to three months for the removed patch to regrow. Such a slow rate of growth definitely makes one wonder just how old some of the large Petrosia referred to above must be.

Bowl-shaped Petrosia lignosa, from de Voogd & van Soest (2002).

Maldonado & Riesgo (2009) were taking their samples to study how the sponges reproduced. Petrosia species are free spawners, releasing eggs and sperm directly into the water column. In the case of P. ficiformis, this happens in late autumn. Eggs develop at scattered locations through the sponge, but migrate within the body to form clusters before being released. The sexes are separate, with an individual sponge only producing either eggs or sperm. After fertilisation, the eggs develop into small ciliated larvae that may shift between a spherical and a multilobate form. Whereas the larvae of other sponges may be quite mobile, those of P. ficiformis are not active swimmers, presumably relying on the motion of water currents to carry them to a suitable resting spot. Maldonado & Riesgo (2009) noted that in the two years they observed Petrosia spawning, it occured at times when surge levels had risen immediately prior to the onset of stormy weather. Despite the regular associations of Petrosia with particular microbial populations, the larvae do not carry any sort of culture propagule from their parents, indicating that each individual sponge reacquires its associates from the surrounding waters. Larvae attach themselves to the substrate after two to four weeks of growth, and proceed to grow slowly (though, as is the way of sponges, if multiple larvae settle immediately adjacent to one another they may fuse into a single aggregate individual). Larvae grown in the lab took about one and a half months to develop distinct choanocyte chambers (the ciliated chambers in which a sponge filters water for food particles). They may share their environment with sea hares, but there is no question that Petrosia are sea tortoises.

REFERENCES

Desqueyroux-Faúndez, R., & C. Valentine. 2002. Family Petrosiidae van Soest, 1980. In: Hooper, J. N. A., & R. W. M. van Soest (eds) Systema Porifera: A guide to the classification of sponges pp. 906–917. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers: New York.

Maldonado, M., & A. Riesgo. 2009. Gametogenesis, embryogenesis, and larval features of the oviparous sponge Petrosia ficiformis (Haplosclerida, Demospongiae). Marine Biology 156 (10): 2181–2197.

Voogd, N. J. de, & R. W. M. van Soest. 2002. Indonesian sponges of the genus Petrosia Vosmaer (Demospongiae: Haplosclerida). Zool. Med. Leiden 76 (16): 193–209.