Sensitivity of termite gut microbiota to genetic and diet changes of the hosts

Termites play an important role in lignocellulose cycle in the nature. Previous studies have indicated that microbial communities inhabiting termite gut are associated with lignocellulose degradation. Meanwhile, the gut flora associated with termite species and the substrate environment. Current methodologies have been limited by insufficient depth and breadth of microbial-sampling, paucity of data for termite hosts particularly at the different population level, inconsistency of sampled substrate environment, and the inability to distinguish the underlying microbial factors. By cross-validating 16S rDNA gene-amplicon-based, we report the most in-depth, comprehensive and collaborated view to-date of the termite gut microbiomes in pilot-populations of termite hosts of four kinds of termite under different substrate environment. We found that: first, gut microbiomes in termite population were featured by a vast phylogenetic diversity; second, different kinds of termite gut microbiomes were significantly more variable in community structure whereas the same kind of under different substrate environment ones were relatively conserved; third, abundance changes of certain taxa from different kinds of termite are distinguished, and furthermore, between groups of higher and lower termites, certain taxa are distinguished; meanwhile, the same kind of termite under different substrate environment, some taxa are distinguished; and finally, the corresponding statistical analysis is done based on bioinformatics . The aim of this study was to characterize in depth the termite gut microbiota by defining the microbial phylogenetic diversity and community-structure using highly paralleled pyrosequencing.