Bacterial diversity of Spheciospongia spp. from Rancabuaya Beach, West Java, Indonesia, using the NGS approach

Abstract. Srikandace Y, Wahhaab A, Rakhmat AF, Kamarisima, Putri SP, Aditiawati P. 2025. Bacterial diversity of Spheciospongia spp. from Rancabuaya Beach, West Java, Indonesia, using the NGS approach. Asian J Trop Biotechnol 22: 7-15. For the first time, the bacterial community associated with Spheciospongia spp. from Rancabuaya Beach in Garut was identified using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). The study focused on the bacterial diversity present on the sponge's body surfaces (SEK1, SEK2), within their inner tissues (SEN1, SEN2), and in the surrounding seawater (SW). The results revealed that SW had the highest number of species, with 198 detected, followed by SEN2 and SEN1, with 193 and 165 species, respectively. In contrast, SEK1 and SEK2 contained 32 and 26 bacterial species, respectively. The analysis also showed that SW possessed the highest diversity and evenness indices at the genus level, with values of 2.95 and 0.79, respectively, indicating the absence of a dominant genus. Conversely, SEK1 and SEK2 exhibited low evenness indices (0.33 and 0.24) and low variety indices (0.80 and 0.54), indicating that the community lacks a balance of species. SEN1 and SEN2 demonstrated moderate genus diversity, but their evenness and dominance varied. The dominant phyla across all samples were Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota. Notably, the NGS method identified several actinomycete genera for the first time, including Micrococcus, Leucobacter, Egibacter, Lawsonella, Nakamurella, and Corynebacterium. A recent study confirmed that NGS provides a rapid, sensitive, and high-quality method for determining microbial communities.