Disruption of termite gut-microbiota and its prolonged fitness consequences
Date
2011-05Author
Rosengaus, Rebeca B.
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Zecher, Courtney N.
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Schultheis, Kelley F.
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Brucker, Robert M.
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Bordenstein, Seth R.
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4612As published
https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01886-10Keyword
Colony fitness; Gut microbiota; Mutualism; Oogenesis; Social insectsAbstract
The disruption of host-symbiont interactions through the use of antibiotics
can help elucidate microbial functions that go beyond short-term nutritional
value. Termite gut symbionts have been studied extensively, but little is
known about their impact on the termite’s reproductive output. Here we
describe the effect that the antibiotic rifampin has not only on the gut
microbial diversity, but also on the longevity, fecundity, and weight of two
termite species - Zootermopsis angusticollis and Reticulitermes flavipes.
We report three key findings: (i) the antibiotic rifampin, when fed to
primary reproductives during the incipient stages of colony foundation,
causes a permanent reduction in the diversity of gut bacteria, and a
transitory effect on the density of the protozoan community, (ii) rifampin
treatment reduces oviposition rates of queens, translating into delayed
colony growth and ultimately reduced colony fitness and (iii) the initial
dosages of rifampin on reproduction and colony fitness had severe longterm fitness effects on Z. angusticollis survivorship and colony size. Taken
together, our findings demonstrate that the antibiotic-induced perturbation
of the microbial community associates with prolonged reductions in
longevity and fecundity. A causal relationship between these changes in the
gut microbial population structures and fitness is suggested by the
acquisition of opportunistic pathogens and incompetence of the termites to
restore a pre-treatment, native microbiota. Our results indicate that
antibiotic treatment significantly alters the termite’s microbiota,
reproduction, colony establishment and ultimately, colony growth and
development. We discuss the implications for antimicrobials as a new
application to the control of termite pest species.
Description
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Society for Microbiology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology 77 (2011): 4303-4312, doi:10.1128/AEM.01886-10.
Suggested Citation
Preprint: Rosengaus, Rebeca B., Zecher, Courtney N., Schultheis, Kelley F., Brucker, Robert M., Bordenstein, Seth R., "Disruption of termite gut-microbiota and its prolonged fitness consequences", 2011-05, https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01886-10, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4612Related items
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