Termite microbiome realms. Microbial communities in termite influence areas in comparison with the soil rainforest

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.

白蚁是热带雨林生态系统中的关键昆虫类群，通过碳循环维持生态系统的生产力。这类极具研究价值的社会性昆虫依赖与微生物的共生关系，得以分解利用木质纤维素（lignocellulose）这类难降解底物。由于白蚁拥有庞大的群体殖民结构，它们极易受到有害生物的激烈竞争。然而白蚁展现出惊人的能力，能够在其共生微生物组中维持特定的微生物群落结构。本研究针对受白蚁影响区域的微生物群落，与无白蚁影响的热带雨林土壤微生物组开展了平行对照研究。本研究采用联合分析策略：使用16S与ITS扩增子测序技术，并结合非靶向代谢组学（untargeted metabolomics），以解析这些微生物群落的分类学结构与其代谢组特征之间的关联。研究发现，不同区域的微生物群落呈现出差异化特征，从微生物类群的角度来看，各采样点的分类学结构间存在一定的类群流动现象。但不同区域的代谢组特征却呈现出显著的差异对比。