Effects of lignins as diet components on the physiological activities of a lower termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki

NMR studies on lignocellulose deconstructions in the digestive system of the lower termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki

“…formosanus workers compared to the softwood and hardwood diets. The result is in line with our previous termite feeding study 33 , 34 , and also with the observation that lower termites including C . formosanus generally prefer wood to grass for feeding in nature 12 .…”

“…Interestingly, however, we recently found that lignin when served with polysaccharides gives marked positive effects on the survival of C . formosanus workers as well as on their maintenance of hindgut protists, major contributors to the polysaccharide digestion in the digestive system of lower termites, suggesting that the presence of lignin in lignocellulose diet is crucial to maintaining a wholesome hindgut digestive system for efficient polysaccharide conversions 34 . Although further studies are clearly needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying such dietary effects of lignin, it is plausible that monomeric and/or oligomeric aromatic compounds derived from partial lignin polymer deconstructions may have the beneficial effect of increasing the energy for symbiotic protists, and/or they may trigger positive changes in the bacteria community that also support polysaccharide digestion in the termite digestive system.…”

“…The obtained feces samples and pulverized original lignocellulose materials (control) were washed successively with water and 80% ethanol, and then lyophilized to give cell wall residue (CWR) samples used for chemical analysis and NMR spectroscopy. In parallel, fifty workers and five soldiers of C. formosanus were subjected to the feeding experiments as described above but on smaller sapwood blocks of Japanese cedar and Japanese beech [10 (R) × 10 (T) × 10 (L) mm] or dried culm straws (25-mm-long) 33 , 34 . The number of live workers was recorded weekly for 3 weeks.…”

Development and Survivorship of Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in Different Growth Stages of Mango and Selected Weeds

“…Larvae also depended on high moisture content in the diet for survival. Additionally, the presence of lignin was crucial to maintain the physiological activities of the lower termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, even it increased the survival rate significantly (Tarmadi, Yoshimura, Tobimatsu, Yamamura, & Umezawa, 2017 Although most of the weeds supported the life cycle of S. dorsalis, the survival rate on them was very low. Only Ac.…”

GC/TOF-MS-Based Metabolomics Reveals Altered Metabolic Profiles in Wood-Feeding Termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki Digesting the Weed Mikania micrantha Kunth

“…Termites are commonly studied as a model organism by researchers evaluating the ability of species to adapt to specific forms of plant biomass degradation and to study the mechanisms of lignocellulose degradation. Prior studies have evaluated the physiological changes in termite survival, body mass, and symbiotic protist associations that occur when they are fed diets consisting of softwood, hardwood, or rice straw [3,4]. Termite host-symbiont meta-transcriptomic sequencing studies have revealed that specific differentially expressed ligninase, phenoloxidase, detoxification, and antioxidant transcripts are associated with the ability of these termites to process a diet rich in lignin [5].…”