The bacterial microbiota of Stolotermes ruficeps (Stolotermitidae), a phylogenetically basal termite endemic to New Zealand.

Stolotermes ruficeps is a widespread, primitive, lower termite occupying dead and decaying wood of many tree species in New Zealand's temperate forests. We identified core bacterial taxa involved in gut processes through combined DNA- and RNA (cDNA)-based pyrosequencing analysis of the 16S nucleotide sequence from five S. ruficeps colonies. Most family and many genus-level taxa were common to S. ruficeps colonies despite being sampled from different tree species. Major taxa identified were Spirochaetaceae , Elusimicrobiaceae and Porphyromonadaceae . Others less well known in termite guts were Synergistaceae , Desulfobacteraceae , Rhodocyclaceae , Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae . Synergistaceae , Lachnospiraceae and Spirochaetaceae were well represented in the RNA data set, indicating a high-protein synthesis potential. Using 130 800 sequences from nine S. ruficeps DNA and RNA data sets, we estimated a high level of bacterial richness (4024 phylotypes at 3% genetic distance). Very few abundant phylotypes were site-specific; almost all (95%) abundant phylotypes, representing 97% of data set sequences, were detected in at least two S. ruficeps colonies. This study of a little-researched phylogenetically basal termite identifies core bacteria taxa. These findings will extend inventories of termite gut microbiota and contribute to the understanding of the specificity of termite gut microbiota.