Comparative studies on two potential methods for the biotechnological production of sponge biomass.

The production of marine sponge biomass is one of the main outstanding goals of marine biotechnology. Due to the increased number of sponge secondary metabolites of economical value the interest in sponge cultivation increased over the last years, too. Therefore, we examined cultivation properties of 11 Mediterranean sponge species. Two methodologies were tested: functional fragment culture and multicell reaggregate culture. The in vitro cultivation of sponge fragments without further dissociation and reaggregation is a method formerly not reported. Reaggregates and functional fragments are promising attempts for culture system development. A broad spectrum of reaggregation properties was found among the species tested. In three species multicell aggregate cultures could be maintained for several months: Petrosia ficiformis, Suberites domuncula and Acanthella acuta. Our results indicate that cellular aggregates or fragments of sponges can be valuable tools in the development of methods for biotechnological production of sponge biomass. Further focus on nutritional demands and the biochemical status of the cells in these kind of cellular associations are needed in order to obtain functional aggregates and fragments.