Termite microbiome realms

Termites are key insects in the tropical rainforest ecosystem, maintaining the productivity of the system by recycling of carbon. These fascinating social insects rely on a symbiosis with microbial organisms to feed on such a recalcitrant material as lignocellulose. Given their large community colonial structures, termites are subject to a fierce competition by detrimental organisms. Yet, they display astonishing abilities to maintain certain type of microbial structures in their allied microbiome. We have carried out a parallel study of the microbial communities that live in termite influenced areas in comparison with the soil rainforest microbiome which is devoid of termite influence. Our combined approach included the use of 16S and ITS amplicon sequencing, coupled to untargeted metabolomics in order to establish the connections between taxonomical structure of these microbial communities, and their ongoing metabolomics profile. We have observed different profiles for the microbial communities, where there seems to be a flow between the taxonomical structures of each location in terms of microbial members. However, the metabolite profiles display a sharp contrast between each other.