PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY OF BACTERIA AND ARCHAEA ASSOCIATED WITH THE MARINE SPONGE PACHYCHALINA SP.

ABSTRACT: Molecular techniques were employed to document the microbial diversity associated with the marine sponge Pachychalina sp. from South China Sea in March 2003. Us-ing the total microbial DNA as template, bacte-rial and archaeal 16S rDNAs were amplified by PCR with universal primers. Amplified products were cloned, sequenced and secondarily ampli-fied by PCR. Then the secondarily amplified products were purified to be further character-ized by amplified rDNA restriction analysis (AR-DRA). According to the enzyme restriction map-ping, the apparent difference among them were disclosed. 22 bacterial cloned partial sequences were acquired and most of them were related to proteobacterium. Also, 7 archaeal cloned partial sequences were acquired and a phylogenetic tree was built up.Result shows the prolific bac-terial and archaeal diversity of marine sponge Pachychalina sp.