The NSU MMG Laboratory is happy to announce that a chromosomal-level, whole nuclear genome of the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta, and its microbial cohort, has now been published by our photosymbiotic and sponge hubs of the Sanger/Moore Aquatic Symbiosis Genome Project.
https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-336/v1
(Photo credits go to Liz Fromuth and Brian K. Walker). Among sessile marine invertebrates, X. muta, gets as “charismatic” as many other mobile marine metazoans: the sponge is sometimes called the “redwood of the reef”, with individuals growing quite large (sometimes more than 2 m wide and deep). Their lives can also span decades, and the species provides rugosity and multiple microhabitats for several Caribbean reefs that have lost many of their hard corals to disease and bleaching. X. muta‘s annual spawning of gametes can also appear conspicuously and dramatic, spraying high and wide into the water column.
This paper culminates the efforts of many collaborators, such as one the MMG’s earliest students (Rebecca Mulheron) who focused on X. muta sponge orange band disease for her MS thesis. This paper also acknowledges Mark Blaxter, and the talented Sanger Institute team who folded this project into the Darwin Tree of Life pipeline, assisted in receipt of samples, carried out whole genome sequencing, annotation, assembly, analyses and writing. Long time sponge research colleagues such as Shirley Pomponi, Ute Hentschel, Dirk Erpenbeck, Cara Fiore and others also appear as co-authors for their taxonomic and sponge expertise. Nina Pruzinsky provided valuable assistance in sending out samples to the UK Sanger Institute. We appreciate all of their efforts. Dr. Lopez’s effort was supported by the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI). This genome will eventually make its way into the final tally eukaryotic whole genomes being put together by the Earth Biogenome Project. We hope this contribution grows in value to invertebrate symbiologists and the wider marine biology community.
An accompanying blog was also recently posted by Carmen Denman Hume – https://sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/03/enter-the-absorbing-world-of-sponges/
Lopez Lab @ NSU 