Host-Specific Diversity of Culturable Bacteria in the Gut Systems of Fungus-Growing Termites and Their Potential Functions towards Lignocellulose Bioconversion

作者：Rongrong Xie, Chenchen Dong, Shengjie Wang, Blessing Danso, Mudasir A. Dar, Radhakrishna S. Pandit, Kiran D. Pawar, Alei Geng, Daochen Zhu, Xia Li, Qing Xu, Jianzhong Sun · 发表于：Insects · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3390/insects14040403 · 被引用次数：36 · 研究领域：Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior、Plant and animal studies、Insect and Pesticide Research

Fungus-growing termites are eusocial insects that represent one of the most efficient and unique systems for lignocellulose bioconversion, evolved from a sophisticated symbiosis with lignocellulolytic fungi and gut bacterial communities. Despite a plethora of information generated during the last century, some essential information on gut bacterial profiles and their unique contributions to wood digestion in some fungus-growing termites is still inadequate. Hence, using the culture-dependent approach, the present study aims to assess and compare the diversity of lignocellulose-degrading bacterial symbionts within the gut systems of three fungus-growing termites: Ancistrotermes pakistanicus, Odontotermes longignathus, and Macrotermes sp. A total of 32 bacterial species, belonging to 18 genera and 10 different families, were successfully isolated and identified from three fungus-growing termites using Avicel or xylan as the sole source of carbon. Enterobacteriaceae was the most dominant family represented by 68.1% of the total bacteria, followed by Yersiniaceae (10.6%) and Moraxellaceae (9%). Interestingly, five bacterial genera such as Enterobacter, Citrobacter, Acinetobacter, Trabulsiella, and Kluyvera were common among the tested termites, while the other bacteria demonstrated a termite-specific distribution. Further, the lignocellulolytic potential of selected bacterial strains was tested on agricultural waste to evaluate their capability for lignocellulose bioconversion. T...