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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Investigating the Microbial Community in the Termite Hindgut - Interview
Published on: May 28, 2007
The termite group I phylum is highly diverse and widespread in the environment
Daniel P R Herlemann1, Oliver Geissinger, Andreas Brune
1Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Strasse, 35043 Marburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The bacterial candidate phylum Termite Group I (TG-1) presently consists mostly of "Endomicrobia," which are endosymbionts of flagellate protists occurring exclusively in the hindguts of termites and wood-feeding cockroaches. Here, we show that public databases contain many, mostly undocumented 16S rRNA gene sequences from other habitats that are affiliated with the TG-1 phylum but are only distantly related to "Endomicrobia." Phylogenetic analysis of the expanded data set revealed several diverse and deeply branching lineages comprising clones from many different habitats. In addition, we designed specific primers to explore the diversity and environmental distribution of bacteria in the TG-1 phylum.
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