Dataset Information

Comparison of Euryarchaea strains in the guts and food-soil of the soil-feeding termite Cubitermes fungifaber across different soil types.

ABSTRACT: Termites are an important component of tropical soil communities and have a significant effect on the structure and nutrient content of soil. Digestion in termites is related to gut structure, gut physicochemical conditions, and gut symbiotic microbiota. Here we describe the use of 16S rRNA gene sequencing and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis to examine methanogenic archaea (MA) in the guts and food-soil of the soil-feeder Cubitermes fungifaber Sjostedt across a range of soil types. If these MA are strictly vertically inherited, then the MA in guts should be the same in all individuals even if the soils differ across sites. In contrast, gut MA should reflect what is present in soil if populations are merely a reflection of what is ingested as the insects forage. We show clear differences between the euryarchaeal communities in termite guts and in food-soils from five different sites. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene clones indicated little overlap between the gut and soil communities. Gut clones were related to a termite-derived Methanomicrobiales cluster, to Methanobrevibacter and, surprisingly, to the haloalkaliphile Natronococcus. Soil clones clustered with Methanosarcina, Methanomicrococcus, or rice cluster I. T-RFLP analysis indicated that the archaeal communities in the soil samples differed from site to site, whereas those in termite guts were similar between sites. There was some overlap between the gut and soil communities, but these may represent transient populations in either guts or soil. Our data do not support the hypothesis that termite gut MA are derived from their food-soil but also do not support a purely vertical transmission of gut microflora.

SUBMITTER: Donovan SE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC444817 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Comparison of Euryarchaea strains in the guts and food-soil of the soil-feeding termite Cubitermes fungifaber across different soil types.

Donovan S E SE Purdy K J KJ Kane M D MD Eggleton P P

Applied and environmental microbiology 20040701 7

Termites are an important component of tropical soil communities and have a significant effect on the structure and nutrient content of soil. Digestion in termites is related to gut structure, gut physicochemical conditions, and gut symbiotic microbiota. Here we describe the use of 16S rRNA gene sequencing and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis to examine methanogenic archaea (MA) in the guts and food-soil of the soil-feeder Cubitermes fungifaber Sjostedt across ...[more]

PMID: 15240259

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Project description:The hindgut of soil-feeding termites is highly compartmentalized and characterized by pronounced axial dynamics of the intestinal pH and microbial processes such as hydrogen production, methanogenesis, and reductive acetogenesis. Nothing is known about the bacterial diversity and the abundance or axial distribution of the major phylogenetic groups in the different gut compartments. In this study, we showed that the variety of physicochemical conditions is reflected in the diversity of the microbial communities in the different gut compartments of two Cubitermes species (TERMITIDAE: Termitinae). 16S rRNA gene clones from the highly alkaline first proctodeal segment (P1) of Cubitermes orthognathus represented almost exclusively gram-positive bacteria with low G+C content (LGC bacteria). In the posterior gut segments, their proportion decreased progressively, and the clone libraries comprised a variety of phyla, including the Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides group, various subgroups of Proteobacteria, and the spirochetes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that many of the clones clustered with sequences from the guts of other termites, and some even formed clusters containing only clones from C. orthognathus. The abundance and axial distribution of major phylogenetic groups in the gut of Cubitermes ugandensis were determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization with group-specific oligonucleotide probes. While the results were generally in good agreement with those of the clonal analysis, direct counts with probes specific for the Planctomycetales revealed a severe underestimation of representatives of this phylum in the clone libraries. Results obtained with newly designed FISH probes directed against two clusters of LGC clones from C. orthognathus indicated that the clones were restricted to specific gut regions. A molecular fingerprinting analysis published in a companion paper (D. Schmitt-Wagner, M. W. Friedrich, B. Wagner, and A. Brune, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:6018-6024, 2003) corroborated the presence of compartment-specific bacterial communities in the gut of different Cubitermes species.

Project description:BackgroundTermites are among the most successful insect lineages on the globe and are responsible for providing numerous ecosystem services. They mainly feed on wood and other plant material at different stages of humification. Lignocellulose is often a principal component of such plant diet, and termites largely rely on their symbiotic microbiota and associated enzymes to decompose their food efficiently. While lower termites and their gut flagellates were given larger scientific attention in the past, the gut lignocellulolytic bacteria of higher termites remain less explored. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the structure and function of gut prokaryotic microbiomes from 11 higher termite genera representative of Syntermitinae, Apicotermitinae, Termitidae and Nasutitermitinae subfamilies, broadly grouped into plant fibre- and soil-feeding termite categories.ResultsDespite the different compositional structures of the studied termite gut microbiomes, reflecting well the diet and host lineage, we observed a surprisingly high functional congruency between gut metatranscriptomes from both feeding groups. The abundance of transcripts encoding for carbohydrate active enzymes as well as expression and diversity profiles of assigned glycoside hydrolase families were also similar between plant fibre- and soil-feeding termites. Yet, dietary imprints highlighted subtle metabolic differences specific to each feeding category. Roughly, 0.18% of de novo re-constructed gene transcripts were shared between the different termite gut microbiomes, making each termite gut a unique reservoir of genes encoding for potentially industrially applicable enzymes, e.g. relevant to biomass degradation. Taken together, we demonstrated the functional equivalence in microbial populations across different termite hosts.ConclusionsOur results provide valuable insight into the bacterial component of the termite gut system and significantly expand the inventory of termite prokaryotic genes participating in the deconstruction of plant biomass. Video Abstract.

Dataset Information

Comparison of Euryarchaea strains in the guts and food-soil of the soil-feeding termite Cubitermes fungifaber across different soil types.

Publications

Comparison of Euryarchaea strains in the guts and food-soil of the soil-feeding termite Cubitermes fungifaber across different soil types.

Similar Datasets

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