Amphimedon queenslandica bacterial exposure transcriptomes

Sponges establish stable symbiotic relationships with specific microbial partners while continuously consuming environmental microorganisms from the surrounding water. Here we investigate the mechanisms by which sponges differentiate between their bacterial symbionts and foreign bacteria by obtaining the transcriptomes of A. queenslandica juveniles exposed to four different conditions: filtered seawater, foreign bacteria enriched from another sponge species, and native bacteria from healthy and unhealthy conspecific adults. Juvenile transcriptomes were obtained at 0, 2, and 8 hours post-exposure, respectively.