In the Microbial Sciences Building at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, the incredibly efficient eating habits of a fungus-cultivating termite are surprising even to those well acquainted with the insect\u2019s natural gift for turning wood to dust.<\/p>\n
According to a study published this week (April 17, 2017) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, when poplar wood undergoes a short, 3.5-hour transit through the gut of the termite, the emerging feces is almost devoid of lignin, the hard and abundant polymer that gives plant cells walls their sturdiness. As lignin is notorious for being difficult to degrade, and remains a costly obstacle for wood processing industries such as biofuels and paper, the termite is the keeper of a highly sought after secret: a natural system for fully breaking down biomass.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe speed and efficiency with which the termite is breaking down the lignin polymer is totally unexpected,\u201d says John Ralph, a UW\u2013Madison professor of biochemistry, researcher at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and lignin expert. \u201cThe tantalizing implication is that this gut system holds keys to breaking down lignin using processes that are completely unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hongjie Li, co-first author of the study, began studying the termite as a graduate student at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Now a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of UW\u2013Madison bacteriology professor and GLBRC researcher Cameron Currie, Li was the first to keep this genus of termite alive in a lab setting, and the first to observe close-up the symbiotic system that unites the termites with the fungus Termitomyces.<\/p>\n
The entire process, as is often the case with social insects, is complex. Young termites, or young workers, collect and eat the wood. The termites\u2019 fungal-laden feces then become an integral part of a fungal comb, a sponge-like structure the termites create within a protected chamber. On the comb, the fungi further degrade the wood until its simple sugars are ready, some 45 days later, to be consumed by old worker termites.<\/p>\n
The tantalizing implication [of this research] is that this gut system holds keys to breaking down lignin using processes that are completely unknown.
\nJohn Ralph<\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades, everybody just thought that the young worker wasn\u2019t doing anything, because of how rapidly the wood passes through its gut,\u201d says Li. \u201cBut after observing the termites in the lab, I assumed there were some functions there, since the fungi simply cannot live on the wood on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
To explore those functions, Li enlisted the help of co-first author Daniel Yelle, a research forest products technologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Forest Products Laboratory, and an expert in wood-degrading fungal systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis system is unique because the fungus and the termite can\u2019t live without each other,\u201d says Yelle. \u201cThey\u2019re symbiotic, and they work together very efficiently to do things fungi can\u2019t do in nature. Together they do everything more rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The system may be symbiotic, but the processes involved in the gut transit \u2014 or the mechanisms by which the termite gut succeeds in cleaving even the hardest-to-cleave portions of the lignin \u2014 are still unknown. Future research will focus on determining which enzymes or bacterial systems might be at work in the gut. If that super enzyme or process can be replicated outside of the termite, it could result in a dramatic improvement in the way we process wood and make biofuels, improving economics and cutting energy use.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great example of the value of basic science research,\u201d says Currie. \u201cStudying how termites process plant biomass in nature not only helps us understand our natural world, but it could contribute to our own efforts to break down biomass.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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