Phylogenetic diversity of prokaryotes associated with the mandibulate nasute termite Cornitermes cumulans and its mound

Phylogenetic analysis of cloned 16S rRNA gene fragments from Cornitermes cumulans (T) and its termite mound soil (TM) from the Brazilian Cerrado (Brazilian Savannah) revealed a great diversity of sequences. The bacteria detected in T and TM samples were associated with the following major lineages: Spirochaetes (T), Firmicutes (T), Synergistetes (T), Cyanobacteria (T), Fibrobacteres (T), Elusimicrobia (T), Chloroflexi (TM), Verrucomicrobia (TM), Gemmatimonadetes (TM), Armatimonas (TM), Proteobacteria (T and TM), Actinobacteria (T and TM), Bacteroidetes (T and TM), Planctomycetes (T and TM), and Acidobacteria (T and TM). All archaeal sequences only obtained from TM sample were associated with uncharacterized Crenarchaeota . The high values that were obtained for the diversity indices and evenness are indicative of high bacterial diversity from T and TM libraries, whereas the TM archaeal library exhibited low diversity. Therefore, our findings revealed differences between the bacterial communities from termite mounds and those from C . cumulans , the latter of which represents a specific bacterial composition when compared to other termite species.