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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1999, p. 4497-4505, Vol. 65, No. 10
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Localization and In Situ Activities of Homoacetogenic Bacteria in the Highly Compartmentalized Hindgut of Soil-Feeding Higher Termites (Cubitermes spp.)

Anne Tholen and Andreas Brune*

Fakultät für Biologie, Mikrobielle Ökologie, Universität Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

Received 4 June 1999/Accepted 4 August 1999

Methanogenesis and homoacetogenesis occur simultaneously in the hindguts of almost all termites, but the reasons for the apparent predominance of methanogenesis over homoacetogenesis in the hindgut of the humivorous species is not known. We found that in gut homogenates of soil-feeding Cubitermes spp., methanogens outcompete homoacetogens for endogenous reductant. The rates of methanogenesis were always significantly higher than those of reductive acetogenesis, whereas the stimulation of acetogenesis by the addition of exogenous H2 or formate was more pronounced than that of methanogenesis. In a companion paper, we reported that the anterior gut regions of Cubitermes spp. accumulated hydrogen to high partial pressures, whereas H2 was always below the detection limit (<100 Pa) in the posterior hindgut, and that all hindgut compartments turned into efficient H2 sinks when external H2 was provided (D. Schmitt-Wagner and A. Brune, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:4490-4496, 1999). Using a microinjection technique, we found that only the posterior gut sections P3/4a and P4b, which harbored methanogenic activities, formed labeled acetate from H14CO3-. Enumeration of methanogenic and homoacetogenic populations in the different gut sections confirmed the coexistence of both metabolic groups in the same compartments. However, the in situ rates of acetogenesis were strongly hydrogen limited; in the P4b section, no activity was detected unless external H2 was added. Endogenous rates of reductive acetogenesis in isolated guts were about 10-fold lower than the in vivo rates of methanogenesis, but were almost equal when exogenous H2 was supplied. We conclude that the homoacetogenic populations in the posterior hindgut are supported by either substrates other than H2 or by a cross-epithelial H2 transfer from the anterior gut regions, which may create microniches favorable for H2-dependent acetogenesis.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Fakultät für Biologie, Mikrobielle Ökologie, Universität Konstanz, Fach M 654, 78457 Konstanz, Germany. Phone: 49-7531-883282. Fax: 49-7531-882966. E-mail: Andreas.Brune{at}uni-konstanz.de.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 1999, p. 4497-4505, Vol. 65, No. 10
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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