Seasonal production of primmorphs from the marine sponge Petrosia ficiformis (Poiret, 1789) and new culturing approaches

The need to produce bioactive compounds from marine sponges leads several groups of research to the culture of primmorphs from different species, which are generally maintained in aquaria for long time before processing. Here we present a study where the importance of several parameters on primmorphs production from the symbiotic sponge Petrosia ficiformis has been evaluated: (i) the sterility of sea water, (ii) the maintenance in aquarium before processing, (iii) the seasonal cycle. Sterility of sea water does not improve primmorphs production in this species. The maintenance of sponges in aquaria before processing negatively affects cell cultures. Regarding seasonality, it is evident that both the number and the size of primmorphs can deeply change depending on the period of the year the sponge is collected. April and July are the months that lead to the highest number of primmorphs, May and June are the months that lead to their biggest sizes. Possible relationships of these results with the life cycle of P. ficiformis are discussed.