termite gut metagenome

Aiming at learning the association between the gut microbiota and termites with different diet habits and phylogenetic positions, the gut bacteria of three populations of two higher termites (wood-feeding Mironasutitermes shangchengensis and fungus-feeding Odontotermes formosanus) and two wood-feeding lower termites (Tsaitermes ampliceps and Reticulitermes flaviceps) were analyzed by high-throughput 454 pyrosequencing of 16S V1–V3 amplicons. The results were: 1) In total, 132 bacterial genera within 29 phyla in the gut bacteria were detected, with Spirochaetes (11-55%), Firmicutes (7-18%), Bacteroidetes (7-31%), and Proteobacteria (8-14%) as the main groups in all the four termite species. 2) The genera Treponema, TG5, Dysgonomonas, Tannerella, za29, Lactococcus, Pseudomonas and SJA-88 were found as the core bioma for the four termites. 3) The overall microbial diversity in the higher termite guts was significantly greater than that in the lower termites. 4) The phylum Spirochaetes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria were super-dominant in the wood-feeding termites, despite of their phylogenetic relations. 5) Very different microbiota exists in the wood-feeding and fungi-feeding termites. This study reported for the first time the gut bacterial communities for the termites of M. shangchengensis, O. formosanus and T. ampliceps and the comparative analyses suggests that the gut microbial communities were shaped by both the phylogeny and the diet habits of the termites.