Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

good day,

my problems are:

1. what bacteria is inside the termite's body?

2. what enzymes produce by the bacteria inside the termite's body



Please help me........ :(

Hi jurnix,

I have some websites that may be able to help you.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/xref/exhib ... s_gut.html
- This website provides general information on how the bacteria are useful to the termites.

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master ... ature.html
- This website is more complex and indept it goes in to the genetic factors of why bacteria are located within the termite. It mentions specific bacteria as Mixotricha paradoxa that reside in the termite as well as other microorganisms as protists. The website says that he termite cannot survive without the bacteria.

" But there are many endosymbiotic relationships in nature which are just as interdependent. For example, no termite could survive without the population of endosymbionts that lives inside its guts, digesting its woody diet for it. And the protists and bacteria that make up that population can't survive outside the termite. Complete interdependency. "

This statement was found on the website http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/fancher/ProkEuk.htm
- However some websites say that some of the termties bacteria cannot survive outside the cell.

Hope this helps
Surekha [/quote]