Marine sponges often contain diverse and abundant microbial communities, including
bacteria, archaea, microalgae, and fungi. In some cases, these microbial associates …

The course of evolution on our planet has resulted in the appearance, diversification, and
proliferation of organisms capable of producing complex structures from hard inorganic …

Profound changes are occurring in the strategies that biotechnology-based industries are
deploying in the search for exploitable biology and to discover new products and develop …

The major skeletal elements in the (Porifera) sponges, are spicules formed from inorganic
material. The spicules in the Demospongiae class are composed of hydrated, amorphous …

Associated microorganisms have been described in numerous marine sponges. Their
metabolic activity, however, has not yet been investigated in situ. We quantified for the first …

Marine sponges are potential sources of many unique metabolites, including cytotoxic and
anticancer compounds. Natural sponge populations are insufficient or inaccessible for …

Marine sponges (Porifera) have attracted significant attention from various scientific
disciplines. Remarkable traces, left by sponges in the fossil records have been studied by …

Covering: up to 2007 Biosilicification is an evolutionarily old and widespread type of
biomineralization both in unicellular and multicellular organisms, including sponges …

Silicification is widespread in the biological world and occurs in bacteria, singlecelled
protists, plants, invertebrates and vertebrates. Minerals formed in the biological environment …

The origin of Metazoa remained—until recently—the most enigmatic of all phylogenetic
problems. Sponges [Porifera] as 'living fossils', positioned at the base of multicellular …