Termites from Okinawa!

To study the microbiome, human samples are not always very convenient.  There are many laws to protect human rights and those laws extend to samples used for science, even in cases where the samples are non-invasively taken (like a poop sample).  But since every organism and environment has a microbiome, there are no shortage of fantastic microbiomes to study.

One of the microbiomes of choice is that of termites.  Why termites?

Termites are horrible pests doing millions of dollars worth of damage... sometimes directly on money itself! 

Termites are unusual in their capacity to digest really tough plant material like cellulose and xylan.  If people could create reactors to turn plants into energy (without burning them), we'd have a truly "green" source of energy.

Termites are key to the nitrogen cycle.  The more we know about the nitrogen cycle, the better chance we have improving everything like crop production and waste production and removal.

For my work, I'll be working with two types of termites, one that eats wood and one that eats soil:

The wood-eating one: Nasutitermes takasagoensis (http://hodotermopsis.seesaa.net/article/67842051.html)

 

 

 

The soil-eating one: Pericapritermes nitobei (http://www.sinfonia.or.jp/~isoptera/myhtm/genus.htm)

Both of these termites come from the tropical part of Japan called Okinawa.

http://www.wallcoo.net/human/SZ_154_OKINAWA_Japan_02/html/wallpaper44.html

Next time, more on Okinawa!