Sponge-microbe associations and their importance for sponge bioprocess engineering

In recent years, a large diversity of sponge-microbe associations has been described: sponges can harbour archaea, eubacteria (including cyanobacteria), microalgae, fungi and probably also protozoa. The current paper gives a brief overview of the different types of associations and describes the potential influence of symbiotic micro-organisms on bioprocess design for the biotechnological production of sponge-associated natural compounds. It is concluded that the presence of microsymbionts may further complicate the already tedious development of sponge culturing techniques.