| Full text | |
| Author(s): Show less - |
Moreira, Edimar A.
[1]
;
Persinoti, Gabriela F.
[2]
;
Menezes, Leticia R.
[1]
;
Paixao, Douglas A. A.
[2]
;
Alvarez, Thabata M.
[3]
;
Cairo, Joao P. L. Franco
[4]
;
Squina, Fabio M.
[5]
;
Costa-Leonardo, Ana Maria
[6]
;
Rodrigues, Andre
[7]
;
Sillam-Dusses, David
[8]
;
Arab, Alberto
[1]
Total Authors: 11
|
| Affiliation: | [1] Univ Fed ABC UFABC, Ctr Ciencias Nat & Humanas, Santo Andre, SP - Brazil
[2] Ctr Nacl Pesquisa Energia & Mat CNPEM, Lab Nacl Biorrenovaveis LNBR, Campinas - Brazil
[3] Univ Posit, Grad Programme Ind Biotechnol, Curitiba, Parana - Brazil
[4] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Biochem & Tissue Biol, Campinas - Brazil
[5] Univ Sorocaba UNISO, Programa Proc Tecnol & Ambientais, Sorocaba - Brazil
[6] Univ Estadual Paulista UNESP, Inst Biociencias, Dept Biol Geral & Aplicada, Rio Claro - Brazil
[7] Sao Paulo State Univ UNESP, Ctr Study Social Insects, Rio Claro - Brazil
[8] Univ Sorbonne Paris Nord, Lab Expt & Comparat Ethol UR 4443, Villetaneuse - France
Total Affiliations: 8
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION; v. 09, APR 26 2021. |
| Web of Science Citations: | 0 |
| Abstract | |
Lignocellulose digestion in termites is achieved through the functional synergy between gut symbionts and host enzymes. However, some species have evolved additional associations with nest microorganisms that collaborate in the decomposition of plant biomass. In a previous study, we determined that plant material packed with feces inside the nests of Cornitermes cumulans (Syntermitinae) harbors a distinct microbial assemblage. These food nodules also showed a high hemicellulolytic activity, possibly acting as an external place for complementary lignocellulose digestion. In this study, we used a combination of ITS sequence analysis, metagenomics, and metatranscriptomics to investigate the presence and differential expression of genes coding for carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZy) in the food nodules and the gut of workers and soldiers. Our results confirm that food nodules express a distinct set of CAZy genes suggesting that stored plant material is initially decomposed by enzymes that target the lignin and complex polysaccharides from fungi and bacteria before the passage through the gut, where it is further targeted by a complementary set of cellulases, xylanases, and esterases produced by the gut microbiota and the termite host. We also showed that the expression of CAZy transcripts associated to endoglucanases and xylanases was higher in the gut of termites than in the food nodules. An additional finding in this study was the presence of fungi in the termite gut that expressed CAZy genes. This study highlights the importance of externalization of digestion by nest microbes and provides new evidence of complementary digestion in the context of higher termite evolution. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 15/21497-6 - Ecological and molecular aspects of lignocellulose digestion in neotropical higher termites |
| Grantee: | Alberto José Arab Olavarrieta |
| Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
| FAPESP's process: | 16/09950-0 - Functional, structural characterizations and biotechnological application of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases from the lower termite Coptotermes gestroi |
| Grantee: | João Paulo Lourenço Franco Cairo |
| Support type: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate |
| FAPESP's process: | 18/22839-6 - Effect of diet on the bacterial diversity of termite guts (Termitidae) |
| Grantee: | Alberto José Arab Olavarrieta |
| Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
| FAPESP's process: | 15/50590-4 - Lignin valorization in cellulosic ethanol plants: biocatalytic conversion via ferulic acid to high value chemicals |
| Grantee: | Fábio Márcio Squina |
| Support type: | Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Thematic Grants |