Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

my questions are:

1. can the bacteria from the termites live outside of the body of the termite if we will copy the temperature or the environment inside the termite's gut or body?

2. what certain process we will be using for separating the bacteria inside the body?

3. what process also to produce ethanol from the bacteria of the termites if the bacteria will be feed a wood? are we going to use a fermentation process? if so, pls. help us how the process done?

pls. help me.......

i have to pass this things as my project.

plsss.......... tnx ADVANCE

Hi,

Generally its helpful to give us some background on your project before you ask questions, such as what stage you are at with your project, how you cam up with the idea and what grade you are in at shcool. Nonetheless I will try and help with what you are asking.

Most bacteria can be successfully cultured outside of their natural environment if the culture system has the same features as that environment. So as you mention, temperature would be one feature of the environment to consider. Another would be food sources and also oxygen - oxygen can be toxic to some bacteria that live in oxygen deprived environments and need to be grown in special anearobic conditions, others can tolerate some low levels of oxygen so putting them in an incubator with lower concentrations of oxygen that air is sufficient, it depends on the species of bacteria.
This has simple information on anaerobic respiration and bacteria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_respiration
This paper has more detailed information on types of bacteria in termite gut
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl ... tid=242936


I don't understand what you mean by question 2. Do you mean how can you determine which types of bacteria are present in the gut of termites? Usually to tell different kinds of bacteria apart researchers test their growth on different kinds of nutrients and also look at them under a microscope, they might also stain them to look for characteristic carbohydrates in the cell wall.

Fermentation is another word for anaerobic respiration or breaking down glucose without oxygen. When glucose is broken down without oxygen one of the products is ethanol.

I hope some of this helps. If you need more help post back with more information about what you are trying to do and people will help.

-Caroline