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Eco-Taxonomic Insights into Actinomycete Symbionts of Termites for Discovery of Novel Bioactive Compounds

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Kurtböke, D. İ., French, J. R. J., Hayes, R. A. and Quinn, R. J. (2015) Eco-Taxonomic Insights into Actinomycete Symbionts of Termites for Discovery of Novel Bioactive Compounds. In: Biotechnological Applications of Biodiversity. Advances in Biochemical Engineering-Biotechnology, 147 . Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-662-45097-0; 978-3-662-45096-3

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Article Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/10_2014_270

Abstract

Termites play a major role in foraging and degradation of plant biomass as well as cultivating bioactive microorganisms for their defense. Current advances in "omics'' sciences are revealing insights into function-related presence of these symbionts, and their related biosynthetic activities and genes identified in gut symbiotic bacteria might offer a significant potential for biotechnology and biodiscovery. Actinomycetes have been the major producers of bioactive compounds with an extraordinary range of biological activities. These metabolites have been in use as anticancer agents, immune suppressants, and most notably, as antibiotics. Insect-associated actinomycetes have also been reported to produce a range of antibiotics such as dentigerumycin and mycangimycin. Advances in genomics targeting a single species of the unculturable microbial members are currently aiding an improved understanding of the symbiotic interrelationships among the gut microorganisms as well as revealing the taxonomical identity and functions of the complex multilayered symbiotic actinofloral layers. If combined with target-directed approaches, these molecular advances can provide guidance towards the design of highly selective culturing methods to generate further information related to the physiology and growth requirements of these bioactive actinomycetes associated with the termite guts. This chapter provides an overview on the termite gut symbiotic actinoflora in the light of current advances in the "omics'' science, with examples of their detection and selective isolation from the guts of the Sunshine Coast regional termite Coptotermes lacteus in Queensland, Australia.

Item Type:Book Section
Business groups:Horticulture and Forestry Science
Keywords:Actinomycetes Biodiscovery Eco-taxonomy Symbiosis Termites Fungus metarhizium-anisopliae Gut bacterial microflora Reticulitermes-flavipes Secondary metabolism Streptomyces sp Structural elucidation Subterranean termites Microbial communities Phylogenetic analysis Antifungal defenses
Subjects:Science > Entomology
Plant pests and diseases
Forestry > Research. Experimentation
Live Archive:09 Jun 2016 05:16
Last Modified:03 Sep 2021 16:50

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