page_title: Eastern subterranean termite
section_title: Bacteria
hierarchical_section_title: Eastern subterranean termite / Gut microbiota / Bacteria
caption_attribution_description: English: Spirochaetes and flagellates viewed through a microscope with phase contrast.
context_page_description: Reticulitermes flavipes, the eastern subterranean termite is the most common termite found in North America. These termites are the most economically important wood destroying insects in the United States and are classified as pests. They feed on cellulose material such as the structural wood in buildings, wooden fixtures, paper, books, and cotton. A mature colony can range from 20,000 workers to as high as 5 million workers and the primary queen of the colony lays 5,000 to 10,000 eggs per day to add to this total.
context_section_description: Most bacterial species in the termite gut are difficult or impossible to culture, so methods like 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing are used to identify which groups are present. One such analysis of R. flavipes worker guts uncovered representatives of the Endomicrobia (Elusimicrobia), Actinobacteria,
  Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Spirochaetes.
  The dominant bacterial taxon in the core gut microbiome is the genus Treponema (Spirochaetes), which accounted for approximately 32% of sequences in another 16S rRNA study. The same study identified Endomicrobia (phylum:Elusimicrobia), which are predominant endosymbionts several protozoa in the termtie gut. Arificial defaunation of Reticulitermes species by force-feeding on starch or starvation leads to a loss of flagellates and, by association, these endosymbiotic Endomicrobia, and an increase in abundance of free-living relatives. A rare free-living member of this class, Endomicrobium proavitum, the first Endomicrobia species to be cultured and named, was isolated from sterile-filtered gut homogenates from defaunated (starch-fed) R. flavipes workers. It is believed to play a role in nitrogen fixation.
  While some gut bacteria live free in the gut lumen or attached to the gut wall, many others live in close association with flagellates. These include uncultured members of Endomicrobia (Elusimicrobia) and other taxa that live as cytoplasmic symbionts, as well as epibiotic symbionts that attach to the outer surface of cells. In R. flavipes, cytoplasmic symbionts have been identified in flagellates such as Trichonympha agilis (Hypermastigida) and Pyrsonympha vertens (Oxymonadida). The latter is also characterised by spirochaete epibiotic symbionts. In other termite species, members of the spirochaete genus Treponema have been identified as endo- and ectosymbionts of flagellates: similar associations may explain Treponema's dominance in the R. flavipes gut.
caption: Spirochaetes and flagellates from a R. flavipes gut
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