Termites Are Associated with External Species-Specific Bacterial Communities

All termites have established a wide range of associations with symbiotic microbes in their guts. Some termite species are also associated with microbes that grow in their nests, but the prevalence of these associations remains largely unknown. Here, we studied the bacterial communities associated with the termites and galleries of three wood-feeding termite species by using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We found that the compositions of bacterial communities among termite bodies, termite galleries, and control wood fragments devoid of termite activities differ in a species-specific manner. Termite galleries were enriched in bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonging to Rhizobiales and Actinobacteria, which were often shared by several termite species. The abundance of several bacterial OTUs, such as Bacillus, Clostridium, Corynebacterium, and Staphylococcus, was reduced in termite galleries. Our results demonstrate that both termite guts and termite galleries harbor unique bacterial communities.IMPORTANCE As is the case for all ecosystem engineers, termites impact their habitat by their activities, potentially affecting bacterial communities. Here, we studied three wood-feeding termite species and found that they influence the composition of the bacterial communities in their surrounding environment. Termite activities have positive effects on Rhizobiales and Actinobacteria abundance and negative effects on the abundance of several ubiquitous genera, such as Bacillus, Clostridium, Corynebacterium, and Staphylococcus. Our results demonstrate that termite galleries harbor unique bacterial communities

Termites host specific fungal communities that differ from those in their ambient environments

Termites are important plant biomass decomposers. Their digestive activity typically relies on prokaryotes and protozoa present in their guts. In some cases, such as in fungus-growing termites, digestion also relies on ectosymbiosis with specific fungal taxa. To date, the mycobiome of termites has yet to be investigated in detail. We evaluated the specificity of whole-termite associated fungal communities in three wood-feeding termite species. We showed that the whole-termite fungal community spectra are stable over diverse environments, regardless of the host species, and differ markedly from the wood in which they nest. The core mycobiome is similar to that found in other ecologically related insects and consists of a narrow spectrum of common filamentous fungi and yeasts, known for their stress tolerance and their ability to decompose plant biomass. The observed patterns suggest that a number of fungal strains may have a symbiotic relationship with termites, and our results set the stage for future investigations into the interactions between fungi, termites, and their other gut microbiota