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Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites

Intrinsic dinitrogen (N(2)) fixation by diazotrophic bacteria in termite hindguts has been considered an important pathway for nitrogen acquisition in termites. However, studies that supported this claim focused on measuring instant N(2) fixation rates and failed to address their relationship with t...

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Autores principales: Mullins, Aaron, Chouvenc, Thomas, Su, Nan-Yao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8553850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34711880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00674-z
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author Mullins, Aaron
Chouvenc, Thomas
Su, Nan-Yao
author_facet Mullins, Aaron
Chouvenc, Thomas
Su, Nan-Yao
author_sort Mullins, Aaron
collection PubMed
description Intrinsic dinitrogen (N(2)) fixation by diazotrophic bacteria in termite hindguts has been considered an important pathway for nitrogen acquisition in termites. However, studies that supported this claim focused on measuring instant N(2) fixation rates and failed to address their relationship with termite colony growth and reproduction over time. We here argue that not all wood-feeding termites rely on symbiotic diazotrophic bacteria for colony growth. The present study looks at dietary nitrogen acquisition in a subterranean termite (Rhinotermitidae, Coptotermes). Young termite colonies reared with wood and nitrogen-rich organic soil developed faster, compared to those reared on wood and inorganic sand. More critically, further colony development was arrested if access to organic soil was removed. In addition, no difference of relative nitrogenase expression rates was found when comparing the hindguts of termites reared between the two conditions. We therefore propose that subterranean termite (Rhinotermitidae) colony growth is no longer restricted to metabolically expensive intrinsic N(2) fixation, as the relationship between diazotrophic bacteria and subterranean termites may primarily be trophic rather than symbiotic. Such reliance of Rhinotermitidae on soil microbial decomposition activity for optimal colony growth may also have had a critical mechanistic role in the initial emergence of Termitidae.
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spelling pubmed-85538502021-11-01 Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites Mullins, Aaron Chouvenc, Thomas Su, Nan-Yao Sci Rep Article Intrinsic dinitrogen (N(2)) fixation by diazotrophic bacteria in termite hindguts has been considered an important pathway for nitrogen acquisition in termites. However, studies that supported this claim focused on measuring instant N(2) fixation rates and failed to address their relationship with termite colony growth and reproduction over time. We here argue that not all wood-feeding termites rely on symbiotic diazotrophic bacteria for colony growth. The present study looks at dietary nitrogen acquisition in a subterranean termite (Rhinotermitidae, Coptotermes). Young termite colonies reared with wood and nitrogen-rich organic soil developed faster, compared to those reared on wood and inorganic sand. More critically, further colony development was arrested if access to organic soil was removed. In addition, no difference of relative nitrogenase expression rates was found when comparing the hindguts of termites reared between the two conditions. We therefore propose that subterranean termite (Rhinotermitidae) colony growth is no longer restricted to metabolically expensive intrinsic N(2) fixation, as the relationship between diazotrophic bacteria and subterranean termites may primarily be trophic rather than symbiotic. Such reliance of Rhinotermitidae on soil microbial decomposition activity for optimal colony growth may also have had a critical mechanistic role in the initial emergence of Termitidae. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8553850/ /pubmed/34711880 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00674-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Mullins, Aaron
Chouvenc, Thomas
Su, Nan-Yao
Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
title Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
title_full Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
title_fullStr Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
title_full_unstemmed Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
title_short Soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
title_sort soil organic matter is essential for colony growth in subterranean termites
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8553850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34711880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00674-z
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