Intracolonial differences in gut bacterial community between worker and soldier castes of Coptotermes formosanus

作     者：Hui Xiang Lei Xie Jun Zhang Yan-Hua Long Ning Liu Yong-Ping Huang Qian Wang 

作者机构：Institute of Plant Physiology and EcologyShanghai Institutes for Biological SciencesChinese Academy of SciencesShanghaiChina 

出 版 物：《Insect Science》 (昆虫科学（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2012年第19卷第1期

页      面：86-95页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 090502[农学-动物营养与饲料科学] 07[理学] 0905[农学-畜牧学] 09[农学] 

基　　金：This researchwas sponsored by a grant from the Chinese Academy of Science 国家863计划 国家自然科学基金 上海市自然科学基金 Cooperation Program between Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Science 

主　　题：Coptotermesformosanus gut bacteria community 16S rDNA 

摘      要：The establishment of symbiotic relationships with intestinal microorganisms enables termites to thrive on recalcitrant substrates such as cellulose and wood. A termite colony is composed of several different castes which have distinct feeding habits. The soldiers, for example, cannot feed by themselves and depend on workers, who feed them with digested or semi-digested foods. To investigate the influence of feeding habits on the bacterial symbionts, a comparative study of gut bacteria between worker and soldier castes of the termite Coptotermesformosanus was conducted. The bacterial communities of both castes were investigated using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis （DGGE） and clonal analysis of 16S ribosomal DNA （rDNA）. Both methods indicated Bacteroidetes was the common predominant group; the common dominant phylotype was affiliated with a reported uncultured Bacteroidetes phylotype （BCfl-03）. There were significant differ- ences in Bacteroidetes and Spirochaetes between two castes. Compared to the gut bacteria of workers, those of soldiers were lower in abundance and diversity of Bacteroidetes and slightly higher in Spirochaetes. Two phylotypes （W8, W11） affiliated to Bacteroidetes and two （W26, W29） affiliated to Spirochaetes were exclusively found in the DGGE profile of the worker caste. Bacteroidetes are assumed to be involved in fermentation of sugars and nitrogenous compounds as well as degradation of uric acid. Spirochaetes are supposed to aid in the functions of acetogenesis and N2-fixation. The different feeding habits between workers and soldiers of C. formosanus may explain the observed differences in the gut bacterial community.