Affiliation:
1. Department of Biochemistry, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
Abstract
The major gut bacteria of the worker caste of nine species of Australian termites, belonging to four families, were isolated and identified to generic level. All species were either facultative anaerobes or strict aerobes. A correlation appears to exist between the major gut bacterium and the family to which the termite belongs. The major bacterium from the two lowest termites,
Mastotermes darwiniensis
(family
Mastotermitidae
) and
Cryptotermes primus
(family
Kalotermitidae
), was
Streptococcus
; from four species belonging to the
Rhinotermitidae (Heterotermes ferox, Coptotermes acinaciformis, C. lacteus, Schedorhinotermes intermedius intermedius)
it was
Enterobacter
; and from three species of the
Termitidae (Nasutitermes exitiosus, N. graveolus, N. walkeri)
it was
Staphylococcus. Enterobacter
was a minor symbiont of
M. darwiniensis, C. primus
, and
N. graveolus; Streptococcus
was a minor symbiont of
H. ferox, C. lacteus, S. intermedius intermedius
, and
N. exitiosus
; and
Bacillus
was a minor symbiont of
C. acinaciformis
and
S. intermedius intermedius. M. darwiniensis
possessed another minor symbiont tentatively identified as
Flavobacterium. C. acinaciformis
from three widely separated locations possessed a similar microbiota, indicating some form of control on the composition of the gut bacteria. Bacteria, capable of growth on N-free medium in the presence of nitrogen gas, were isolated from all termites, except
N. exitiosus
and
N. walkeri
, and were identified as
Enterobacter.
No cellulose-degrading bacteria were isolated.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
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