Characterization of the Core and Caste-Specific Microbiota in the Termite, Reticulitermes flavipes

Abstract

The hindgut of the termite Reticulitermes flavipes harbors a complex symbiotic community consisting of protists, bacteria, and archaea. These symbionts aid in the digestion of lignocellulose from the termite’s wood meal. Termite hindguts were sampled and the V4 hyper-variable region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced and analyzed from individual termites. The core microbiota of worker termites consisted of 69 OTUs at the 97% identity level, grouped into 16 taxa, and together accounted for 67.05% of the sequences from the bacterial community. The core was dominated by Treponema, which contained 36 different OTUs and accounted for ∼32% of the sequences, which suggests Treponema sp. have an important impact on the overall physiology in the hindgut. Bray–Curtis beta diversity metrics showed that hindgut samples from termites of the same colony were more similar to each other than to samples from other colonies despite possessing a core that accounted for the majority of the sequences. The specific tasks and dietary differences of the termite castes could have an effect on the composition of the microbial community. The hindgut microbiota of termites from the alate castes differed from the worker caste with significantly lower abundances of Treponema and Endomicrobia, which dominated the hindgut microbiota in workers and soldiers. Protist abundances were also quantified in the same samples using qPCR of the 18S rRNA gene. Parabasalia abundances dropped significantly in the winged alates and the Oxymonadida abundances dropped in both alate castes. These data suggest that the changes in diet or overall host physiology affected the protist and bacterial populations in the hindgut. The in-depth bacterial characterization and protist quantification in this study sheds light on the potential community dynamics within the R. flavipes hindgut and identified a large and complex core microbiota in termites obtained from multiple colonies and castes.

Symbiotic bacteria associated with a bobtail squid reproductive system are detectable in the environment, and stable in the host and developing eggs

“…Extracted DNA was amplified using barcoded primers developed by Caporaso et al, (2012) for the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) following established protocols (Nelson et al, 2014;Benjamino and Graf, 2016). Some sample processing was performed by the UConn Microbial Analysis, Resources and Services facility.…”

“…Sequencing data were analysed following established protocols (Nelson et al, 2014;Benjamino and Graf, 2016) using QIIME (Caporaso et al, 2010). OTUs were assigned at the 97% identity level using Greengenes (2013-08 release, DeSantis et al, 2006) and de novo methods.…”

Effect of Different Lignocellulosic Diets on Bacterial Microbiota and Hydrolytic Enzyme Activities in the Gut of the Cotton Boll Weevil (Anthonomus grandis)

“…The same predominant groups have been previously reported in other weevils ( Rhynchophorus ferrugines and Rhynchophorus Vulneratus ), beetles ( Pachisoma endroedyi , Pachisoma striatum , Megetra cancellata , Epicauta longicollis , Gonasida inferna and Calosoma peregrinator ), cotton leafworm ( Spodoptera littoralis ), higher termites ( Nasutitermes aquilinus and Cortaritermes fulviceps ), honey bee ( Apis mellifera ), planthopper ( Lycorma delicatula ) and yellow ladybird ( Illeis koebelei ) (Colman et al, 2012; Shao et al, 2014; Yun et al, 2014; Ben Guerrero et al, 2015; Montagna et al, 2015; Franzini et al, 2016). Furthermore, Spirochaetes have been reported previously as a dominant component of the termite gut microbiota (Warnecke et al, 2007; Husseneder et al, 2010; Boucias et al, 2013; Benjamino and Graf, 2016). These changes could be due to differences in diet heterogeneity; more diverse diets with greater complexity of nutrients, such as CS, may require a more diverse bacterial group (Bertino-Grimaldi et al, 2013).…”

Evaluating the core microbiota in complex communities: A systematic investigation

“…Overall, a wide range of core definitions have been applied across a broad array of environmental samples (e.g. Huse et al, 2012;Otani et al, 2014;Benjamino and Graf, 2016;Wang et al, 2016).…”