A molecular survey of Australian and North American termite genera indicates that vertical inheritance is the primary force shaping termite gut microbiomes

Table 1 Summary of the surveyed 66 termite whole gut samples according to host phylogeny (genus and family); sample location (country); and relative bacterial, archaeal, and protist abundances using universal primers (926F) and prokaryote primers (803F) in some instances (see text and Additional file 13 : Figure S10)

Termite genus		Family	Number of samples			Bacteria		Archaea		Protist
			Aus	USA	Total	%		%		%
Higher						926F	803F	926F	803F
1	Drepanotermes	Termitidae	1	0	1	97.5		2.5		0.0
2	Gnathamitermes	Termitidae	0	8	8	99.7		0.1		0.2
3	Amitermes	Termitidae	2	8	10	98.2		1.7		0.0
4	Nasutitermes	Termitidae	7	1	8	97.5		2.5		0.0
5	Tenuirostritermes	Termitidae	0	2	2	99.8		0.2		0.0
6	Microcerotermes	Termitidae	12	0	12	99.1		0.9		0.0
7	Macrognathotermes	Termitidae	1	0	1	77.9	63.5	22.1	36.5	0.0
		Sub-total	24	18	42
Lower						926F	803F	926F	803F
8	Reticulitermes	Rhinotermitidae	0	3	3	92.0		0.2		7.8
9	Heterotermes	Rhinotermitidae	6	0	6	91.4		5.3		3.3
10	Coptotermes	Rhinotermitidae	3	0	3	66.5	78.6	33.4	21.4	0.1
11	Schedorhinotermes	Rhinotermitidae	3	0	3	82.3	72.9	17.2	27.1	0.5
12	Marginitermes	Kalotermitidae	0	2	2	98.5		0.0		0.2
13	Incisitermes	Kalotermitidae	0	1	1	97.6		0.0		1.5
14	Glyptotermes	Kalotermitidae	2	0	2	100.0		0.0		2.4
15	Porotermes	Stolotermitidae	1	0	1	42.1	50.1	57.7	49.9	0.0
16	Mastotermes	Mastotermitidae	3	0	3	82.2	92.4	17.4	7.6	0.4
		Sub-total	18	6	24
		Overall	42	24	66

ISSN: 2049-2618