Microbial community structure in midgut and hindgut of the humus-feeding larva of Pachnoda ephippiata (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae).

ABSTRACT: The guts of soil-feeding macroinvertebrates contain a complex microbial community that is involved in the transformation of ingested soil organic matter. In a companion paper (T. Lemke, U. Stingl, M. Egert, M. W. Friedrich, and A. Brune, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:6650-6658, 2003), we show that the gut of our model organism, the humivorous larva of the cetoniid beetle Pachnoda ephippiata, is characterized by strong midgut alkalinity, high concentrations of microbial fermentation products, and the presence of a diverse, yet unstudied microbial community. Here, we report on the community structure of bacteria and archaea in the midgut, hindgut, and food soil of P. ephippiata larvae, determined with cultivation-independent techniques. Clone libraries and terminal restriction fragment length

SUBMITTER: Egert M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC262301 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature