The gut microbiota of termites: evolutionary origin and functional adaptations
Event Details
- Date:
- Tuesday, 22 July 2014
- Time:
- 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
- Room:
- Level 1 Seminar Room
- UQ Location:
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (St Lucia)
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Dr Benjamin Schulz
- Phone:
- 54875
- Email:
- b.schulz@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
Event Description
- Full Description:
- SCMB Molecular Biosciences seminar at 1:00 pm Tuesday 22nd of July. Please note the unusual day and time for this seminar:
Prof Dr. Andreas Brune
Dept. of Biogeochemistry, Max Plank Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
The gut microbiota of termites: evolutionary origin and functional adaptations
Termites degrade lignocellulose with the help of their intestinal microbiota. The general role of the microbial symbionts in the digestive process is slowly emerging, but the specific functions of individual populations and their evolutionary origin are still in the dark. Deep sequencing of the hindgut community revealed strong differences among the major host groups, and dramatic changes in the abundance of particular taxa coincide with major events in termite evolution. The acquisition of cellulolytic protists by an ancestral cockroach gave rise to large populations of bacterial symbionts that specifically colonize the gut flagellates in all evolutionary lower termites. After the loss of flagellates in higher termites, the wood particles became available for bacterial colonization, providing new niches for fiber-digesting populations. While some lineages in the core microbiota may be cospeciating with termites since the early Cretaceous, others were apparently acquired independently from the environment by habitat selection.
Tuesday July 22nd, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
AIBN (Building 75), Level 1 Seminar Room, St Lucia
Andreas Brune studied biology at the Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen in Germany. He received his doctorate in 1990. After a postdoctoral position at Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA, he became a group leader at the Universität Konstanz, Germany, where he habilitated in 2000. Since 2003, he is Head of the research group 'Insect gut microbiology and symbiosis' at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg and Honorary Professor at the neighbouring Philipps-Universität Marburg. His laboratory studies the gut microbiota of wood-feeding and soil-feeding insects, the prokaryotic symbionts of termite gut flagellates, and the ecology and evolution of symbiotic digestion. He has more than 100 original publications in peer-reviewed international journals.
More information is available on his homepage: http://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/brune
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
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- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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