AUTHOR=Amato Amalia , Esposito Roberta , Federico Serena , Pozzolini Marina , Giovine Marco , Bertolino Marco , Guida Marco , Manfra Loredana , Libralato Giovanni , Zupo Valerio , Costantini Maria 

TITLE=Marine sponges as promising candidates for integrated aquaculture combining biomass increase and bioremediation: an updated review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2023

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1234225

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2023.1234225

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Sponge farming was experimentally performed for over 100 years, with early attempts mainly devoted to supply bath sponges and for ornamental purpose. During the last decades, sponge farming has been proposed to produce biomass specifically for those species from which many structurally diverse bioactive compounds were isolated, frequently present in a low concentration that limits their commercial production. This point is very important because it offers an environmental-friendly approach for the use of sponges as source of natural compounds for pharmacological, cosmeceutical, and nutraceutical industries. In addition, sponges can have an ecological role as filter-feeding animals with a great significance in marine benthic communities. Thanks to their aquiferous system, they can filter large amounts of sea water, retaining up to 80% of suspended particles, so resulting a good system to bioremediate marine environment from different contaminants. Noteworthy, few attempts of integrated aquaculture systems were performed combining the increase of sponge biomass and their use for bioremediation, showing impressive results and opening new possibilities in the aquaculture sector. This review is about both in situ and lab-based aquaculture methods for the production of sponge biomass and on sponge-related bioremediation of marine environment focusing on microorganisms and contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics and others). Moreover, a