Comparative analysis of the Formosan termite Coptotermes formosanus cuticle and gut microbiotas

Cuticular bacteria were collected by vortexing termite works (10 each) with PBS buffer (1 ml) in 1.5 ml test tube for 1 min, and 900 microliter of supernatant were transferred to a new test for centrifugation at 12000 rpm for 20 min. The supernatant of each tube was carefully removed and the sample was re-suspended with 50 microliter PBS. Alternatively, the guts (10 each) were dissected from termite workers and homogenized in 1.5 ml test tube containing 100 microliter PBS buffer. After adding 900 microliter PBS buffer, the tubes were centrifuged at 12000 rpm for 20 min. There were eight repeats for each test sample. DNA was extracted and amplified with the 16S V4 primers 515F and 806R. The products were used to generate the amplicon libraries for sequencing with the Illumina Miseq system.