Food Storage by the Savanna Termite Cornitermes cumulans (Syntermitinae): a Strategy to Improve Hemicellulose Digestibility?

Autor(es):Mostrar menos -

Menezes, Leticia ^[1] ; Alvarez, Thabata Maria ^{[2, 3]} ; Persinoti, Gabriela Felix ^[2] ; Franco, Joao Paulo ^[2] ; Squina, Fabio ^[4] ; Moreira, Edimar Agnaldo ^[5] ; Alvaredo Paixao, Douglas Antonio ^[2] ; Costa-Leonardo, Ana Maria ^[1] ; da Silva, Vinicius Xavier ^[6] ; Pedrosa Silva Clerici, Maria Teresa ^[7] ; Arab, Alberto ^[5]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Paulista UNESP, Inst Biociencias, Dept Biol, Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

^[2] Ctr Nacl Pesquisa Energia & Mat, Lab Nacl Ciencia & Tecnol Bioetanol CTBE, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Positivo, Curitiba, PR - Brazil

^[4] Univ Sorocaba UNISO, Programa Proc Tecnol & Ambientais, Sorocaba, SP - Brazil

^[5] Fed Univ ABC UFABC, CCNH Ctr Nat Sci & Humanities, Santo Andre, SP - Brazil

^[6] Univ Fed Alfenas, Inst Ciencias Nat, Alfenas, MG - Brazil

^[7] Univ Campinas UNICAMP, Sch Food Engn, Dept Food Technol, Campinas, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: MICROBIAL ECOLOGY; v. 76, n. 2, p. 492-505, AUG 2018.
• Citações Web of Science: 2

Resumo

It has been suggested that food storage inside the nest may offer termites with a nutritional provision during low resource availability. Additionally, feces employed as construction material provide an excellent environment for colonization by microorganisms and, together with the storage of plant material inside the nest, could thus provide some advantage to the termites in terms of lignocellulose decomposition. Here, we conducted for the first time a comprehensive study of the microbial communities associated to a termite exhibiting food storage behavior using Illumina sequencing of the 16S and (ITS2) regions of rRNA genes, together with enzymatic assays and data collected in the field. Cornitermes cumulans (Syntermitinae) stored grass litter in nodules made from feces and saliva located in the nest core. The amount of nodules increased with nest size and isolation, and interestingly, the soluble fraction of extracts from nodules showed a higher activity against hemicellulosic substrates compared to termite guts. Actinobacteria and Sordariales dominated microbial communities of food nodules and nest walls, whereas Spirochetes and Pleosporales dominated gut samples of C. cumulans. Within Syntermitinae, however, gut bacterial assemblages were dissimilar. On the other hand, there is a remarkable convergence of the bacterial community structure of Termitidae nests. Our results suggest that the role of nodules could be related to food storage; however, the higher xylanolytic activity in the nodules and their associated microbiota could also provide C. cumulans with an external source of predigested polysaccharides, which might be advantageous in comparison with litter-feeding termites that do not display food storage behavior. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/21497-6 - Aspectos ecológicos e moleculares da digestão da lignocelulose em cupins superiores neotropicais
• Beneficiário: Alberto José Arab Olavarrieta
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular