Their ability to degrade lignocellulose gives termites an important place in the carbon cycle.
This ability relies on their partnership with a diverse community of bacterial, archaeal and …

In the past several years, we have witnessed an increased interest in understanding the
structure and function of the indigenous microbiota that inhabits the human body. It is hoped …

The principles underlying the assembly and structure of complex microbial communities are
an issue of long-standing concern to the field of microbial ecology. We previously analyzed …

Many insects contain diverse gut microbial communities. While several studies have focused
on a single or small group of species, comparative studies of phylogenetically diverse hosts …

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. After their discovery in the early 1900s,
bacteriophages were a primary cure against infectious disease for almost 25 years, before …

Background Termite lignocellulose digestion is achieved through a collaboration of host
plus prokaryotic and eukaryotic symbionts. In the present work, we took a combined host …

Viral metagenomics has expanded our knowledge of the ecology of uncultured viruses,
within both environmental (eg, terrestrial and aquatic) and host-associated (eg, plants and …

The microbial community in the gut of phylogenetically lower termites, comprising both
flagellated protists and prokaryotes, has fascinated many scientists because of the symbiotic …

The gut of termites is densely populated with microbial symbionts that aid in the efficient
digestion of recalcitrant lignocellulose. Despite the formidable unculturability of the resident …

Termites effectively feed on many types of lignocellulose assisted by their gut microbial
symbionts. To better understand the microbial decomposition of biomass with varied …