Poor food sources adpt. Flashcards
What do Termites eat?
Most Termites eat Lignocellulose
- Cell wall component of woody plants
- Rich in carbon, poor in nitrogen and other nutrients
- Difficult to digest
- Need a lot of different enzymes
Termites Sources of Enzymes?
Endogenous: enzymes produced by termite workers
Endosymbionts: enzymes produced by microorganisms in the termite gut (protozoa, bacteria, archaea)
Endosymbionts function.
To break down lignocellulose into usable nutrients and to recycle and fix nitrogen. The endosymbionts are mainly in the workers, as they forage for food and feed the colony and do most of the digestion before they pass it on.
Importance of Uric acid recycling.
To mineralize uric acid from the fat body which is then secreted into the hindgut for amino acid synthesis, assimilated into microbial biomass.
What is the difference between higher and lower termites?
Higher termites are considered more evolutionarily advanced than their lower counterparts due to increased sociality and usage of gut bacteria and fungi to break down food. This allows for an increased diversification of food sources such as grass, wood, soil, and other organic matter.
Lower termites are older and less evolved. Instead of bacteria and fungi to break down food, they use flagellates present in the hindgut. Since these gut protozoa primarily produce cellulase, lower termites are limited to wood as a food source.
How is termite digestion specialized in relation to most insects?
A type of digestion whereby food is digested partially by the organism and partially by symbionts. In termites, food is partially digested in the foregut and hindgut by endoglucanases produced by the termite. The remaining compounds are further broken down by endosymbionts in the hindgut.
Can termites break down lignocellulose?
Termites cannot break down lignocellulose on their own and must rely on endosymbionts to help
What is the nutritional composition of lignocellulose?
Lignocellulose is carbon-rich but nitrogen poor
What is paratrangenesis ?
Use of genetically engineered microbial symbionts as “Trojan Horse” to c in a host organism.
Describe the effects of paratrangenesis to attack endosymbionts as a control for Formosan and other subterranean termite pests.
Subterranean termites have three species of protozoan symbionts – easy, specific targets. Paratrangenesis uses lytic peptides to attack their membranes and kill them. Use yeast as the “Trojan Horse” – genetically modified the yeast to produce a ligand-lytic peptide.
Introduced the yeast as food, yeast established in the guts and shared among termites; eventually, the ligand-lytic peptide killed the majority of the target protozoa and the colony.
Dr. Husseneder’s lecture described a unique method of insect control. Thinking back to previous lectures on control (biological, chemical, mechanical, transgenic, etc.) how would you categorize Dr. Husseneder’s method of control? Explain your answer.
Paratrangenesis cannot be categorized in any of the previous methods on pest control. This method is a “Trojan Horse” that genetically modifies the yeast to deliver lytic peptides to attack essential termite symbionts. Genetically modified yeast introduced as food establish in the gut and spread among termites.
What lytic peptides do?
Disrupts the membranes of microorganisms and kills them.
