Molecular phylogenetic diversity of the bacterial community in the gut of the termite Coptotermes formosanus

The phylogenetic diversity of the bacterial community in the gut of the termite Coptotermes formosanus was investigated using a 16S rRNA gene clone library constructed by PCR. After screening by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, 49 out of 261 clones with unique RFLP patterns were sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed. Many of the clones (94%) were derived from Bacteroidales, Spirochaetes, and low G + C content gram-positive bacteria consisting of Clostridiales, Mycoplasmatales, Bacillales, and Lactobacillales. In addition, a few clones derived from Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobia, and the candidate phylum "Synergistes" were also found. The most frequently identified RFLP type, BCf1-03, was assigned to the order Bacteroideales, and it constituted about 70% of the analyzed clones. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the representative clones found in this study tended to form some clusters with the sequences cloned from the termite gut in several other studies, suggesting the existence of termite-specific bacterial lineages.