Fiber-associated spirochetes are major agents of hemicellulose degradation in the hindgut of wood-feeding higher termites.

ABSTRACT: Symbiotic digestion of lignocellulose in wood-feeding higher termites (family Termitidae) is a two-step process that involves endogenous host cellulases secreted in the midgut and a dense bacterial community in the hindgut compartment. The genomes of the bacterial gut microbiota encode diverse cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes, but the contributions of host and bacterial symbionts to lignocellulose degradation remain ambiguous. Our previous studies of Nasutitermes spp. documented that the wood fibers in the hindgut paunch are consistently colonized not only by uncultured members of Fibrobacteres, which have been implicated in cellulose degradation, but also by unique lineages of Spirochaetes. Here, we demonstrate that the degradation of xylan, the major component of hemicell

SUBMITTER: Tokuda G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6304966 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature