16S rRNA metabarcoding of gut microbiota between untreated and Chitin Synthesis Inhibitors bait treated in three subterranean termite species

Abstract

Termites heavily depend on the gut microbiota to process a broad spectrum of biological reactions; therefore, influencing the gut microbiota is a crucial strategy for managing their infestation. Prior research has focused on the effects of entomopathogenic agents and antibiotics. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the impact of Chitin Synthesis Inhibitors (CSIs) on the gut microbiome. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the gut microbiota in both untreated control and CSIs bait treated of Coptotermes gestroi (lower termite), Globitermes sulphureus and Macrotermes gilvus (higher termites) by amplifying V3 to V4 hypervariable region using 16S rRNA metagenomic in Illumina Miseq platform. Among all samples, the abundance of bacteria in higher termites was observed to be greater than in lower termite, and the abundance of bacteria in CSIs bait-treated samples is higher than in untreated control samples. This presumably due to established symbiont relationship with the pre-existing bacteria and archaea and divergence of dietary pattern. On the other hand, the gut microbiome also proved to highly susceptible to CSIs bait treatment hence, the upregulated after the bait treatment.