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Science 4 September 1992:
Vol. 257. no. 5075, pp. 1384 - 1387
DOI: 10.1126/science.257.5075.1384
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Articles

Genesis of Acetate and Methane by Gut Bacteria of Nutritionally Diverse Termites

Alain Brauman 1, Matthew D. Kane 2, Marc Labat 1, and John A. Breznak 2

1 Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d'Outre-Mer (ORSTOM), Université de Provence, 1331 Marseille Cedex 3, France, and Laboratoire de Microbiologie, ORSTOM, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
2 Department of Microbiology and Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824

The evolution of different feeding guilds in termites is paralleled by differences in the activity of their gut microbiota. In wood-feeding termites, carbon dioxide—reducing acetogenic bacteria were found to generally outprocess carbon dioxide—reducing methanogenic bacteria for reductant (presumably hydrogen) generated during microbial fermentation in the hindgut. By contrast, acetogenesis from hydrogen and carbon dioxide was of little significance in fungus-growing and soil-feeding termites, which evolved more methane than their wood- and grass-feeding counterparts. Given the large biomass of termites on the earth and especially in the tropics, these findings should help refine global estimates of carbon dioxide reduction in anoxic habitats and the contribution of termite emissions to atmospheric methane concentrations.

Submitted on January 29, 1992
Accepted on June 30, 1992


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