Essential amino acid provisioning by termite-associated gut microbiota
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Abstract
Gut-associated microbes of many insects provide a variety of beneficial nutritive functions to their hosts such as the provisioning of essential amino acids (EAAs) to those that feed on diets limited in assimilable nitrogen (i.e., wood). We investigated this function by the gut microbiota of the eastern subterranean termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) using 13C-stable isotope analysis of EAAs in the diet and termite samples. Evidence of possible microbe input was revealed by 13C-depletion of termite carcass (-27.0 ± 0.43‰, mean ± s.e.), and termite gut filtrate samples (-27.3 ± 0.58‰) relative to their wood diet (-26.0 ± 0.48‰) (F (2, 63) = 6.2, P < 0.004). An investigation of the identity of non-dietary EAA sources determined that termites predominantly incorporated EAAs derived from bacteria, with minor fungal input. The most likely means of EAA acquisition is through proctodeal trophallaxis (mouth-anus feeding), a well-established feature of termite colony nestmates, and subsequent digestion of the microbial fraction in the transferred food. Our study provides empirical data in support of the gut microbial EAA provisioning function in termites by using 13C-stable isotopes to determine the microbial origins of incorporated EAAs in termite tissues.
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2015. Essential amino acid provisioning by termite-associated gut microbiota. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1109v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1109v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
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This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Paul A Ayayee conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables.
Susan C Jones contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Zakee L Sabree contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Ethics
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
No animal rights were violated in the execution of this study and conditions were within the guidelines of the Ohio State University’s Office of Responsible Research Practices.
Funding
The Ohio State University for supporting P.A.A. and Z.L.S. with funds for this study. Research support for S.C.J. was in part from State and Federal funds appropriated to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
