Isolation of facultatively aerobic actinomycetes from the gut, parent soil and mound materials of the termites Procubitermesaburiensis and Cubitermes severus

Abstract Isolates of the genus Streptomyces were readily obtained from the intestines of two African species of soil-feeding termites by an aerobic explant technique using starch casein medium, and from their parent soil and mound materials by dilution plating. Discriminant analysis of the isolates, based on 44 representative characters, showed that the population derived directly from the termites was significantly different from that of the feed soil or the mound. The termite gut was considered to be a good source of unusual actinomycetes, but strains isolated under aerobic conditions are likely to be allochthons selected by the intestinal environment, which is highly alkaline and anaerobic. An anaerobic, filamentous isolate was obtained which may be a component of the prokaryotic symbiont population mediating termite digestion.