Division of functional roles for termite gut protists revealed by single-cell transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT: The microbiome in the hindgut of wood-feeding termites comprises various species of bacteria, archaea, and protists. This gut community is indispensable for the termite, which thrives solely on recalcitrant and nitrogen-poor wood. However, the difficulty in culturing these microorganisms has hindered our understanding of the function of each species in the gut. Although protists predominate in the termite gut microbiome and play a major role in wood digestion, very few culture-independent studies have explored the contribution of each species to digestion. Here, we report single-cell transcriptomes of four protists species comprising the protist population in worldwide pest Coptotermes formosanus. Comparative transcriptomic analysis revealed that the expression patterns of the genes involv

SUBMITTER: Nishimura Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7490689 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature