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Comparative Analysis of Microbial Diversity in Termite Gut and Termite Nest Using Ion Sequencing

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Abstract

Termite gut and termite nest possess complex microbial communities. However, only limited information is available on the comparative investigation of termite gut- and nest-associated microbial communities. In the present study, we examined and compared the bacterial diversity of termite gut and their respective nest by high-throughput sequencing of V3 hypervariable region of 16S rDNA. A total of 14 barcoded libraries were generated from seven termite gut samples and their respective nest samples, and sequenced using Ion Torrent platform. The sequences of each group were pooled, which yielded 170,644 and 132,000 reads from termite gut and termite nest samples, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed significant differences in the bacterial diversity and community structure between termite gut and termite nest samples. Phyla Verrucomicrobia and Acidobacteria were observed only in termite gut, whereas Synergistetes and Chlorobi were observed only in termite nest samples. These variations in microbial structure and composition could be attributed with the differences in physiological conditions prevailing in the termite gut (anoxic and alkaline) and termite nest (oxic, slightly acidic and rich in organic matter) environment. Overall, this study unmasked the complexity of bacterial population in the respective niche. Interestingly, majority of the sequence reads could be classified only up to the domain level indicating the presence of a huge number of uncultivable or unidentified novel bacterial species in both termite gut and nest samples. Whole metagenome sequencing and assessing the metabolic potential of these samples will be useful for biotechnological applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank CSIR-SRF (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Senior Research Fellowship) New Delhi for providing financial support. We would also extend our thanks to central facilities UGC-CAS, UGC-NRCBS, DBT-IPLS and DST-PURSE programs at School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Genetics, Centre for Excellence in Genomic Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 625021, India

      Arumugam Manjula, Sundararaju Sathyavathi, Paramasamy Gunasekaran & Jeyaprakash Rajendhran

    2. Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20892, MD, USA

      Muthuirulan Pushpanathan

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    1. Arumugam Manjula
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    Correspondence to Jeyaprakash Rajendhran.

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    Arumugam Manjula and Muthuirulan Pushpanathan contributed equally to this paper.

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    284_2015_947_MOESM1_ESM.tif

    Phylogenetic comparison of bacterial community between termite gut and termite nest samples. The sequence reads obtained from seven termite gut and termite nest samples were combined to assess the overall phylum distribution among these samples. The data set was subjected to normalization in MG-RAST analysis tool and the values of two individual samples were scaled from 0 (minimum) to 1 (maximum). The circles are coloured at different phylum and the bar chart within the circle indicates the abundance distribution of different phyla at genus level. The red and green bar indicates the genus distribution within different phyla in termite gut and termite nest samples, respectively. Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 2777 kb)

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    Manjula, A., Pushpanathan, M., Sathyavathi, S. et al. Comparative Analysis of Microbial Diversity in Termite Gut and Termite Nest Using Ion Sequencing. Curr Microbiol 72, 267–275 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-015-0947-y

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-015-0947-y

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