Aplysilla
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Porifera
- Class: Demospongiae
- Order: Dendroceratida
- Family: Darwinellidae
- Genus: Aplysilla
Visual Description
Members of Aplysilla (as represented in the TreeOfLife-200M image records) are marine demosponges in the family Darwinellidae that are frequently recorded as visible, often encrusting/low-growing sponges on hard substrates. Image records associated with the genus include forms identified to species such as Aplysilla glacialis, Aplysilla rosea, and Aplysilla sulfurea, consistent with the use of Aplysilla as a genus-level group in photographic biodiversity datasets. [1]
Sponge–bacteria interactions (experimental context)
Sponge-associated microbial communities can change in response to exposure to external (foreign) bacteria, which can be tracked by shifts in bacterial community structure and sponge chemistry/bioactivity. In a controlled aquarium study using Aplysilla rosea explants and the marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens, both time and bacterial treatment affected sponge-associated bacterial community structure, and treated samples showed differences in community composition relative to controls. [2]
The same study reported that Vibrio natriegens exposure altered sponge metabolite profiles (HPLC-based metabolite profiling) after 48 hours, and associated changes in extract bioactivity patterns were assessed using antibacterial bioassays/bioautogram-style readouts (with activity trends described by the authors in relation to treatment versus controls). [2]
Predators and other biotic interactions (reported examples)
Interaction records compiled in Global Biotic Interactions include Aplysilla glacialis as prey (“eatenBy”) for nudibranchs such as Cadlina luteomarginata and Cadlina modesta. [3]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Porifera / Demospongiae / Dendroceratida / Darwinellidae / Aplysilla constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- 1 2 Mohammad F. Mehbub; Jason E. Tanner; Stephen J. Barnett; J. F. Bekker; Christopher M. M. Franco; Wei Zhang. A controlled aquarium system and approach to study the role of sponge-bacteria interactions using Aplysilla rosea and Vibrio natriegens. Scientific Reports. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30295-y.
- ↑ Aplysilla. Global Biotic Interactions. https://www.globalbioticinteractions.org/?targetTaxon=Aplysilla. Accessed 2026-07-10.