DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v46f0
title: Data from: Diet is the primary determinant of bacterial community structure in the guts of higher termites

description: The gut microbiota of termites plays critical roles in the symbiotic
 digestion of lignocellulose. While phylogenetically ‘lower termites’ are
 characterized by a unique association with cellulolytic flagellates,
 higher termites (family Termitidae) harbour exclusively prokaryotic
 communities in their dilated hindguts. Unlike the more primitive termite
 families, which primarily feed on wood, they have adapted to a variety of
 lignocellulosic food sources in different stages of humification, ranging
 from sound wood to soil organic matter. In this study, we comparatively
 analysed representatives of different taxonomic lineages and feeding
 groups of higher termites to identify the major drivers of bacterial
 community structure in the termite gut, using amplicon libraries of 16S
 rRNA genes from 18 species of higher termites. In all analyses, the
 wood-feeding species were clearly separated from humus and soil feeders,
 irrespective of their taxonomic affiliation, offering compelling evidence
 that diet is the primary determinant of bacterial community structure.
 Within each diet group, however, gut communities of termites from the same
 subfamily were more similar than those of distantly related species. A
 highly resolved classification using a curated reference database revealed
 only few genus-level taxa whose distribution patterns indicated
 specificity for certain host lineages, limiting any possible cospeciation
 between the gut microbiota and host to short evolutionary timescales.
 Rather, the observed patterns in the host-specific distribution of the
 bacterial lineages in termite guts are best explained by diet-related
 differences in the availability of microhabitats and functional niches.
description: Mitochondrial cytochrome
 oxidase subunit II (COII) alignmentAligned nucleotide
 sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit II genes of
 higher termitesDryad_CoII.fastaPhylogenetic tree of higher termites based on the COII geneMaximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit II genes from higher termites.Dryad_CoII_tree.ntreeBray-Curtis and UniFrac dissimilarities among the bacterial gut communities in higher termitesCommunity dissimilarity among the gut microbiota of higher termites based on the Bray-Curtis and weighted UniFrac metrics. Both distance matrices are available as different spreadsheets in this Excel document.Dryad_Community_dissimilarities.xlsxDistribution of OTUs among the bacterial gut communities in higher termitesTable summarizing the distribution of operational taxonomic units defined at 99% sequence similarity of the 16S rRNA gene among the samples.Dryad_OTUtable.txtPhylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA phylotypes from Fibrobacteres and TG3 in higher termitesPhylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA sequences representing OTUs from the phyla Fibrobacteres and TG3. The tip labels in the tree include each OTU's sample affiliation and relative abundance in that sample.Dryad_TG3_Fibrobacteres.treePhylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA phylotypes from Treponema I in higher termitesPhylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA sequences representing OTUs from Treponema I. The tip labels in the tree include each OTU's sample affiliation and relative abundance in that sample.Dryad_Treponema_I.tree