Termite Guts: World's Smallest Bioreactors
Termites degrade lignocellulosic plant materials in various stages of humification. It was generally believed that the enlarged hindgut serves as an anaerobic digester where a symbiotic gut microflora ferments cellulose and hemicelluloses to short-chain fatty acids, which are then absorbed and oxidized by the host (Brenznak and Brune 1994) The presence of carbohydrate-fermenting bacteria and protozoa, high levels of volatile fatty acids in the gut fluid, and the occurrence of typical anaerobic activities such as homoacetogenesis and methanogensis resemble the situation encountered in the rumen of sheep and cattle.
Classical model of the major metabolic reactions occurring in termite hindguts (and in the bovine rumen).
These are, however, several problems with the analogy between termite hindgut and rumen. The rumen microbiota consists chiefly of strict anaerobes, whereas wood feeding termites harbors mainly aerotolerant lactic acid bacteria, facultatively anaerobic enterobacteria, and even a significant fraction of strictly aerobic bacteria (Tholen et al. 1997).
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Termite and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Facts:
• Termites produce more Carbon Dioxide (CO2) each year than all living things combined.
• Scientists have calculated that termites alone produce ten times as much carbon dioxide as all the fossil fuels burned in the whole world in a year.
• Pound for pound, the weight of all the termites in the world is greater than the total weight of humans.
• Scientists estimate that, worldwide, termites may release over 150 million tons of methane gas into the atmosphere annually. In our lower atmosphere this methane then reacts to form carbon dioxide and ozone.
• It is estimated that for every human on Earth there may be 1000 pounds of termites.
• On the average Termites expel gas composed of about 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen, 9% carbon dioxide, 7% methane, and 4% oxygen.
• It is thought "There are 2,600 different species of termites, and it is estimated that there are at least a million billion individual termites on Earth, that they emit two and four percent of the global carbon dioxide and methane budget, respectively-both mediated directly or indirectly by their microbes.
• Termites eat cellulose, but they can not digest it without the help of microorganisms in their gut. Single-celled protozoan are the primary organisms that break the bonds that turn cellulose into units of glucose, and from there, the termite can break the glucose bonds, release the energy, and give off carbon dioxide and water.
• The Science magazine reports that termites annually generate more than twice as much carbon dioxide as mankind does burning fossil fuels. One termite species annually emits 600,000 metric tons of formic acid into the atmosphere, an amount equal to the combined contributions of automobiles, refuse combustion and vegetation.
• The damage caused by wood-destroying insects has an important economic effect. Nationwide, the cost of control and repair of damage nears $5 billion per year; the outlay in California and Hawaii exceeds $1 billion per year (Brier et al. 1988, Su and Scheffrahn 1990). In California, subterranean and drywood termites are responsible for >95% of all costs resulting from wood-destroying insects (Brier 1987, Rust et al. 1988). Damage by drywood termites is more common in southern California (Wilcox 1979).
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