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- Title
Phylogenetic Diversity of Nitrogen Fixation Genes in the Intestinal Tract of Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder.
- Authors
Du, Xin; Li, Xiaojuan; Wang, Yin; Peng, Jianxin; Hong, Huazhu; Yang, Hong
- Abstract
Wood-feeding termites live on cellulolytic materials that typically lack of nitrogen sources. It was reported that symbiotic microbes play important roles in the maintenance of a normal nitrogen contents in termite by different metabolisms including nitrogen fixation. In this study, the diversity of nitrogen-fixing organisms in the symbiotic intestinal microflora of Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder was investigated with culture independent method. Fragments of the nifH genes, which encode dinitrogenase reductase, were directly amplified from the DNA of the mixed microbial population in the termite gut with four sets of primers corresponding to the conserved regions of the genes. Clones were randomly selected and analyzed by RFLP. Sequence analysis revealed that a large number of nifH sequences retrieved from the termite gut were most closely related to strict anaerobic bacteria such as clostridia and spirochetes, some of the others were affiliated with proteobacteria, bacteroides, or methanogenic archaea. The results showed that there was a remarkable diversity of nitrogenase genes in the gut of Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder.
- Subjects
BACTERIA phylogeny; NITROGEN fixation; RETICULITERMES; TERMITES; GASTROINTESTINAL system; CELLULOLYTIC bacteria
- Publication
Current Microbiology, 2012, Vol 65, Issue 5, p547
- ISSN
0343-8651
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00284-012-0185-5