Affiliation:
1. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
Abstract
I examined the role of aerobic microbial populations in cellulose digestion by two sympatric species of desert millipedes,
Orthoporus ornatus
and
Comanchelus
sp. High numbers of bacteria able to grow on media containing cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, or cellobiose as the substrate were found in the alimentary tracts of the millipedes. Enzyme assays indicated that most cellulose and hemicellulose degradation occurred in the midgut, whereas the hindgut was an important site for pectin degradation. Hemicellulase and β-glucosidase in both species and possibly C
x
-cellulase and pectinase in
O. ornatus
were of possible microbial origin. Degradation of [
14
C]cellulose by millipedes whose gut floras were reduced by antibiotic treatment and starvation demonstrated a reduction in
14
CO
2
release and
14
C assimilation and an increase in
14
C excretion over values for controls. It appears that the millipede-bacterium association is mutualistic and makes available to millipedes an otherwise mostly unutilizable substrate. Such an association may be an important pathway for decomposition in desert ecosystems.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
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