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The fibre‐associated cellulolytic bacterial community in the hindgut of wood‐feeding higher termites ( N asutitermes spp.)
Author(s) -
Mikaelyan Aram,
Strassert Jürgen F. H.,
Tokuda Gaku,
Brune Andreas
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.12425
Subject(s) - hindgut , biology , ruminococcus , 16s ribosomal rna , bacteria , cellulase , microbial population biology , botany , microbiology and biotechnology , feces , cellulose , larva , biochemistry , genetics , midgut
Summary Termites digest lignocellulose with the help of their symbiotic gut microbiota. In the hindgut of evolutionary lower termites, a dense community of cellulolytic flagellates sequesters wood particles from the hindgut content into their digestive vacuoles. In higher termites (family T ermitidae), which possess an entirely prokaryotic microbiota, the wood particles are available for bacterial colonization. Substantial particle‐associated cellulase activities have been detected in the hindgut of N asutitermes species, but the microorganisms responsible for these activities and their potential association with the wood fibres remain to be studied. Here, we used density‐gradient centrifugation to separate wood fibres and adherent bacterial cells from cells freely suspended in the hindgut fluid. In N asutitermes corniger , the fibre fraction contained 28% of the DNA and 45% of the cellulase activity in the luminal contents ( P 3 region). Community fingerprinting (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism) and pyrotag sequencing analysis of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes demonstrated that the wood fibres in the hindgut of both N . corniger and N . takasagoensis are specifically colonized by members of F ibrobacteres, the TG 3 phylum, and certain lineages of S pirochaetes characteristic of the gut microbiota of wood‐feeding higher termites. We propose that the loss of flagellates in higher termites provided a new niche for fibre‐associated cellulolytic bacteria.