Investigation of Oscillatoria spongeliae-dominated bacterial communities in four dictyoceratid sponges

The bacterial communities of the Palauan sponges Lamellodysidea herbacea, Lamellodysidea chlorea, Lendenfeldia chondrodes, and Phyllospongia papyacea known to be dominated by Oscillatoria spongeliae is investigated. Only Lendenfeldia chondrodes, and Phyllospongia papyacea are found to contain unusual alpha-proteobacteria with insertions present in a stem-loop of their rRNA.