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Termite Gut Spirochetes

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The Prokaryotes

Introduction

There are few habitats on earth in which spirochetes are such prominent members of the microbial community as in the hindgut of termites. This was first documented over a century ago by Joseph Leidy (Leidy, 1874–1881; Leidy, 1877), who was struck by their abundance in hindgut contents of the eastern subterranean termite, Termes (now Reticulitermes) flavipes. In some termites, spirochetes account for up to 50% of all prokaryotes in the hindgut (Paster et al., 1996), and even casual phase contrast microscopic observation of hindgut contents usually reveals about a dozen different morphological types, distinguishable on the bases of cell size, wavelength and amplitude, or pitch (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

A wood-eating termite, Reticulitermes flavipes(top), is positioned next to a gut extracted from a separate individual (middle). Vertical white arrowhead indicates the juncture between the hindgut (left) and tubular midgut (right). Bottom is a phase contrast micrograph of diluted gut...

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Authors
  1. John A. Breznak
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  2. Jared R. Leadbetter
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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Breznak, J.A., Leadbetter, J.R. (2006). Termite Gut Spirochetes. In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30747-8_11

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