Caste-specific nutritional differences define carbon and nitrogen fluxes within symbiotic food webs in African termite mounds.

ABSTRACT: Fungus-growing termites of the genus Macrotermes cultivate symbiotic fungi (Termitomyces) in their underground nest chambers to degrade plant matter collected from the environment. Although the general mechanism of food processing is relatively well-known, it has remained unclear whether the termites get their nutrition primarily from the fungal mycelium or from plant tissues partly decomposed by the fungus. To elucidate the flows of carbon and nitrogen in the complicated food-chains within the nests of fungus-growing termites, we determined the stable isotope signatures of different materials sampled from four Macrotermes colonies in southern Kenya. Stable isotopes of carbon revealed that the termite queen and the young larvae are largely sustained by the fungal mycelium. Conversely, all

SUBMITTER: Vesala R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6853943 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature