The Porifera Hypothesis

[Steve Frey]

I've decided to go ahead and start another thread here because I want to get you all excited about this angle. This is the first completed page of the site, it addresses only a small part of the big picture but a very important one, I think you'll find this rather interesting. After reading this try to imagine just how much of the complexity of morgellons can be accounted for if you were to entertain the idea of a sponge origin.


The Associated Organisms of Porifera

Microbial Symbionts

Marine sponges most often contain a diverse and abundant array of microbial communities. In some cases, these microbial associates comprise as much as 40% of the sponge's volume and can contribute significantly to host metabolism. The microbial consortia present in many sponges span all three domains of life, with at least 18 bacterial and archaeal phyla now known to cohabitate with these hosts. The number of organisms that live within a single sponge may be very high, possibly thousands of organisms of various species.

This immense number of microorganisms know to associate with the sponges has led to their being labeled as 'microbial fermenters'. It is likely that these associations play a role in the sponges ability to produce a wide range of chemicals with bioactive properties and pharmaceutical potential. It is debated about whether or not many of these compounds are symbiont-derived, in at least some cases this has been established. One compound, pederin, is known only from a symbiont of terrestrial beetles, begging the question as to what evolutionary and ecological forces might have led to the presence of such similar substances in the symbionts of such dissimilar hosts.

Remarkably, distantly related sponges from across the world appear to share a substantial proportion of their microbiota The apparent absence of these same microbes from seawater and other marine hosts raises interesting questions about the origin, evolution and maintenance of sponge–microbe associations. Molecular techniques revealed that highly diverse microbial assemblages are transmitted between sponge generations via the reproductive stages.

Some organisms that live on and in sponges act as parasites. Cyclopoid copepods are the most important parasites of marine sponges; in fact, some genera of these crustaceans have become modified as a consequence of their parasitic existence. Freshwater sponges also are attacked by parasites such as rotifers and mites, which lay eggs in them; larvae of the neuropteran insect family Sisyridae (spongillaflies) live in, and feed upon, freshwater sponges.


Algae Symbionts

The most important symbiotic associations of sponges occur with single-celled and multicellular algae. The algae may live in the surface layers of the sponge, inside the cells, or among them. The sponge protects the algae from enemies, from unfavorable environmental conditions, and from their own metabolic waste products. The sponge uses the algae as a source of oxygen, as a mechanism for eliminating its products of metabolism, as a screen against sunlight, and as a food source (consuming both algal waste products and dying algae).

Sponges of the freshwater Spongillidae and various species of marine littoral sponges consume dying green and blue-green algae respectively. The algae, which provide the Spongillidae with their characteristic green color, may be transmitted through the reproductive gemmules. In some boring clionid sponges of the class Demospongiae, some single-celled brown algae are constantly present. The marine sponges may also harbor multicellular blue-green algae (e.g., Oscillatoria), red (Rhodophyceae) and green (Chlorphyceae) algae. Red and green algae sometimes provide skeletal support for certain sponges.

Symbiotic relationships between algae and sponges usually occur in strongly illuminated zones; the algae may act as a protective device because they deposit pigments in the superficial cell layers of the sponge. In some sponges color is related to the number of symbionts, in a cave, for example, sponges gradually change from intensely colored specimens to light-colored, sometimes white.

[Kritters]

Steve,

"The body wall of sponges (Porifera), the lowest metazoan phylum, is formed by two epithelial cell layers of exopinacocytes and endopinacocytes, both of which are associated with collagen fibrils."

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/14/13/2022

collagen:
A fibrous structural protein that constitutes the protein of the white fibers (collagenous fibers) of skin, tendon, bone cartilage and all other connective tissues. It also occurs dispersed in a gel to provide stiffening, as in the vitreous humor of the eye. It is made of monomers of tropocollagen.
Different types of collagen (types I, II, III, IV and V and others) occur in different locations and have differing chemical compositions and physical characteristics.

Porifera commandeered fibrin? So many thoughts, so little time ;-)

[Steve Frey]

More and more is being learned about the sponge, It is unlike anything else, older than anything else, and I believe there are many surprising discoveries yet to come.

He explains that his research group discovered that the center of the sponge's fine glass needles contains a filament of protein that controls the synthesis of the needles. By cloning and sequencing the DNA of the gene that codes for this protein, they discovered that the protein is an enzyme that acts as a catalyst, a surprising discovery. Never before had a protein been found to serve as a catalyst to promote chemical reactions to form the glass or a rock-like material of a biomineral. From that discovery, the research group learned that this enzyme actively promotes the formation of the glass while simultaneously serving as a template to guide the shape of the growing mineral (glass) that it produces.

http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=1108

In this study, we report the discovery of a novel, deeply rooting candidate phylum of bacteria in marine sponges.

Because of the lack of relatedness to known bacterial phyla and because bacterial cultivation has so far been unsuccessful, the status of candidate phylum and the name "Poribacteria" are proposed. This name was chosen to acknowledge the affiliation of these bacteria with sponges (phylum Porifera).

The distribution of the candidate phylum "Poribacteria" is consistent with the general microbial pattern that has been described for several marine sponges . Marine sponges have a unique microbial signature that consists of specific sequence clusters belonging to at least seven different known bacterial phyla. As a result of this study, the candidate phylum "Poribacteria" has been added to the list. To our knowledge, this is only the second report of cell compartmentalization for a prokaryotic lineage. With "Poribacteria"-specific PCR primers and FISH probes in hand, it is now possible to explore the abundance and distribution patterns of this elusive, sponge-specific candidate phylum.

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/70/6/3724

The evolutionary "big picture" for animals.

Sponges are the most primitive phylum of multicellular animals
But most experts now think that sponges are a side branch,
in the sense that the rest of multicellular animals are NOT descended from organisms like sponges.

Wilson considered two alternative explanations for how the randomly arranged sponge cells were able to re-form anatomical structures.

(I) That the cells switch from being one differentiated cell type to another, according to their new positions; for example that cells became skin cells if they found themselves on the outside.

or (II) That differentiated cells crawl back to their correct locations; for example, that skin cells crawl back to the outer surface.

hypothesis # II turned out to be correct



more facts about sponges:

i) Sponges slowly crawl from place to place, instead of being sessile
ii) Sponge cells constantly rearrange all the time, just as actively as after dissociation

Probably the jelly-fish/coral/Hydra/sea anemone phylum corresponds to the true evolutionary root of animals.

http://www.bio.unc.edu/Faculty/Harri...11/animals.htm

[Steve Frey]

This is pretty scary, and it supports what I believe is really going on here
The Sixth Mass Extinction Event, this is the general consensus amongst biologists as well.

EMERGING MARINE DISEASES--CLIMATE LINKS AND ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS

In the past few decades, there has been a worldwide increase in the reports of diseases affecting marine organisms . In the Caribbean, mass mortalities among plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates have resulted in dramatic shifts in community structure. Recent outbreaks of coralline algae lethal orange disease and a coralline fungal disease have affected IndoPacific communities on unprecedented scales. In the North Atlantic, frequency of mass mortalities of marine mammals appears to be increasing, particularly along heavily polluted coastal areas, suggesting human activity as a factor in disease dynamics. Ecologically and economically important species from temperate oceans, such as seagrasses, oysters, and sea urchins, have also been affected by large-scale epidemics. Although the frequencies of such accounts are compelling, whether they are indeed "new" or are simply artifacts of improved detection requires further evaluation.


New symptoms. Marked by two large-scale epidemics with significant community level impacts, the Caribbean basin has emerged as a disease hot spot. The virtual eradication of Diadema antillarum (dominant sea urchin) in the 1980s was one of the first well-studied marine epidemics although the pathogen is yet to be identified. In some locations, loss of this keystone herbivore contributed to phase shifts from coral-to algae-dominated reefs. Other dominants, like the staghorn and elkhorn and corals, Acropora spp., also were virtually eradicated at many localities in the 1980s by an unknown agent from which they have yet to recover. Also during the late 1980s at least 4000 ha of turtle grass, Thalassia testudinum, died in Florida Bay, an additional 23,000 ha were severely affected . Diseases affecting benthic marine species such as corals and seagrasses will have disproportionate impacts by altering habitat and ecosystem function. In spite of the impact, little progress has been made in identifying the causative agents for marine diseases or in applying standard epidemiological methods to assess impact or mode of transmission. Of the dozen or so coral diseases currently described for the Caribbean region, the identity of the causative agent is known only for three; nonetheless, the severity and novelty of many of the disease symptoms suggest that the diseases are indeed new. Three additional lines of evidence support this view. First, monitoring of coral diseases in the Florida Keys indicates that there has been an increase in the number of new diseases. Second, because corals are longlived and many of the diseases are highly virulent, current levels of disease prevalence, if they had occurred in previous decades, would have been detected. Finally, evidence from the fossil record indicates that shifts in community structure due to disease are not commonplace on these coral reefs. The rapid replacement of the coral Acropora cervicornis with Agaricia in Belize with Porites in the Bahamas, taken as a "signature" of epidemics, was absent from geologic cores representing several thousand years of reef development. These results suggest that the current Agaricia and Porites replacements were unique in the recent ecological history of the Caribbean coral fauna.

In addition to diseases, there has been an apparent increase in the frequency of reports of toxic algal blooms in the last decade. Cetacean, pinniped, and fish populations have been affected, often severely, by algal toxins and/or viral epidemics. Many toxic blooms in the ocean have been attributed to dinoflagellates, and more than 85 toxic species have been identified. Harmful algal blooms appear to have increased globally in the past several decades. The toxic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida was originally isolated from an outbreak at an aquaculture facility and has been described as the causative agent of massive fish kills along the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

Host shifts. It appears that most new diseases are not caused by new micro-organisms, but rather by known agents infecting new or previously unrecognized hosts. Evidence for this is persuasive in studies of morbilliviral diseases of marine mammals, which indicate that some severe outbreaks have been caused by introduction from terrestrial or other aquatic mammalian reservoir species. For instance, canine distemper virus (CDV) was thought to be introduced into crab-eating seals in Antarctica by contacts with infected sled dogs used during an antarctic expedition. Similarly, CDV isolated from Lake Baikal seals (Phoca sibirica) was genetically identical to CDV present in domestic dogs in Siberia suggesting that the seal die-off was caused by direct or indirect contacts with domestic dogs. A closely related morbillivirus-phocine distemper virus (PDV)--that previously had not been recognized, was identified as the cause of another mass mortality that occurred in the late 1980s among harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoris gryphus) inhabiting the coastal waters of northwestern Europe. Soon after, infections with two other newly recognized morbilliviruses, dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) and porpoise morbillivirus (PMV), were shown to be the cause of mass mortalities and disease outbreaks among dolphins, porpoises, and other cetacean species all over the world. PDV was thought to be transmitted to the previously unexposed seals of northwestern Europe by infected harp seals, which migrated toward Europe in response to food shortages due to overfishing around Greenland in the late 1980s. Serological studies have shown also that morbilliviruses like DMV and PMV are ubiquitous among cetaceans and are probably transmitted periodically between species. A recent survey conducted among terrestrial and aquatic carnivores of Alaska showed that both CDV and PDV are endemic in these populations. Recently, DMV- and PMV-like viruses were found in the highly endangered Mediterranean monk seals, which had died either during a mass mortality off the coast of Mauritania or as individually dispersed animals found in Greek waters. In addition, influenza viruses that had spilled over from aquatic or migratory avian reservoirs have caused mortality among seals and whales. An unusual case of a host shift in a marine invertebrate is the aspergillosis of Caribbean sea fan corals. The pathogen, identified as Aspergillus sydowii, is typically a soil-borne fungus that is known to cause opportunistic infections of terrestrial species. In sea fans (Gorgonia spp.), monitoring studies show that the fungus can rapidly erode the coral and, in some cases, cause death. Its emergence as a marine pathogen suggests the ineffectiveness of the land-sea boundary as a barrier to disease transmission.

[Steve Frey]

Mitochondrial Genome of the Homoscleromorph Oscarella carmela (Porifera,
Demospongiae) Reveals Unexpected Complexity in the Common Ancestor of
Sponges and Other Animals

Results
Genome Organization: The Largest Set of Genes in Animal
mtDNA, Unusual Gene Order, and High Coding Density

The tatC codes for the largest and usually the most conserved subunit of the twin-arginine transport (Tat) pathway, which exists in prokaryotic organisms, chloroplasts, and some mitochondria, and functions in the transport of fully folded proteins and enzyme complexes across membranes

“Across Membrains”

http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/24/2/363.pdf




This is where they're wrong


The diversity of signaling-pathwayelements present in O.carmela reveals that major animal signal-transduction mechanisms evolved before they were adopted for their sophisticated
eumetazoan functions.[/i]

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/103/33/12451

What it reveals is the sponge storing the genetic coding for other organisms, much more logical.

[Steve Frey]

Finally, the connecting evidence is beginning to come in. Confirmed findings of sponge spicules in human eyes!

And this also ties in with the post by krit regarding serum IgM

Histopathological analysis of lensectomy material from the three patients and vitrectomy from the last one revealed several silicious spicules (gemmoscleres) of the freshwater sponges Drulia uruguayensis and D. ctenosclera. This work brings material evidences, for the first time in the literature, that freshwater sponge spicules may be a surprising new etiological agent of ocular pathology

Freshwater sponge spicules: a new agent of ocular pathology
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache...nk&cd=11&gl=us


Now if someone would just take the time to try and prove that the morgellons fibers are also sponge spicules we would get somewhere.

[Steve Frey]

More evidence in support of the porifera theory


An analysis of sponge genomes

The genome of sponges has only been investigated so far by Bartmann-Lindholm who reported a multimodal CsCl profile which could be resolved into five peaks for Geodia cydonium. This problem was reinvestigated here on both G. cydonium and Suberites domuncula. It was shown that DNAs from both sponges are characterized by unimodal CsCl profiles, additional peaks being due to contaminating prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...423ace6c456b95

[Steve Frey]

The choanoflagellates just may turn out to be the bottom line here.

The remarkable genetic complexity of anthozoan cnidarians implies that most of the qualitative genetic differences between animals and other eukaryotes are ancestral, and begs the question – do these differences correlate with the evolution of multicellularity in the animal lineage? Two rather neglected groups of organisms are likely to be crucial in addressing this question – the choanoflagellates and sponges. The choanoflagellates are unicellular flagellate protozoans closely resembling sponge collar cells (choanocytes), and are often referred to as the closest relatives of the Metazoa. Sponges, by contrast, are multicellular, and are unquestionably animals, but lack several key eumetazoan characteristics such as epithelia and neurons. From the data that are available for certain classes of genes (e.g. those encoding homeodomain proteins [30] and TGFb receptors [31]), sponge origin(s) might pre-date the evolution of some key eumetazoan genes; alternatively, these might have been lost or highly modified.

Basal organisms had complex genomes

http://www.sars.no/About/trendsInGenetics.pdf

[Steve Frey]

Ignore the technical lingo, bottom line, the sponge and cnidaria are likely one in the same


Partial Sequence of a Sponge Mitochondrial Genome Reveals Sequence Similarity to Cnidaria in Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit II and the Large Ribosomal RNA Subunit

A 2550-bp portion of the mitochondrial genome of a Demosponge, genus Tetilla, was amplified from whole genomic DNA extract and sequenced. The sequence was found to code for the 3′ end of the 16S rRNA gene, cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, a lysine tRNA, ATPase subunit 8, and a 5′ portion of ATPase subunit 6.

The Porifera cluster distinctly within the eumetazoan radiation, as a sister group to the Cnidaria. Also, the mitochondrial genetic code of this sponge is likely identical to that found in the Cnidaria. Both the full COII DNA and protein sequences and a portion of the 16S rRNA gene were found to possess a striking similarity to published Cnidarian mtDNA sequences, allying the Porifera more closely to the Cnidaria than to any other metazoan phylum.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/ypgc6kddmcympw6p/

[chocket]

Congratulations on moving the site!
Carrie