Microbial diversity of termite gut

Abstract

Microflora in termites guts have been shown to assist the digestion of cellulose in termites through the production of cellulolytic enzymes. The microflora composed of symbiotic microorganisms in the termite gut play an important function in the digestion of cellulose and hemicellulose. Although the characterisation of microflora has been reported in previous research on other species, there are no significant advances in the characterization of microflora in endemic species of Malaysia. This project presents the isolation and characterisation of microorganism from the microflora of the worker caste from genus Macrotemus. The bacterial strain isolated from the termite gut were cultured in carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to test the ability to use cellulose as carbon source and thus able to produce cellulases. Three rod shaped Gram-negative strains were successfully isolated from the gut of the termite. The biochemical characterisation showed positive on the citrate test and catalase test. The 16S rRNA identification results suggested that the isolates were possibly from the Pseudomonas sp., Enterobacter sp. and Klebsiella sp.. These three bacterial strains were abundance in soil and are characterised as facultative anaerobes suggesting potential association as a consortium member of the microflora in the termite gut. It is believed that this work would contribute to the knowledge available on the microflora of the endemic termite species in Malaysia.