Metatranscriptome of the protistan community in Reticulitermes flaviceps

The hindgut of lower termites harbors various symbiotic protists, which perform varied functions in lignocellulose decomposition. As termites are social insects, the species and numbers of these flagellated protists in the termite gut vary among the different castes. Juvenile hormones (JHs) can regulate caste differentiation in termites. In this study, we used the juvenile hormone analog fenoxycarb to induce termite workers (Reticulitermes flaviceps) to differentiate into pre-soldiers. A metatranscriptomic investigation of the protistan community was then performed by 454 pyrosequencing. From a thorough analysis based on 597 312 generated reads, we found that the starch and sucrose metabolism pathway was the most abundant pathway across the metatranscriptome. The current study demonstrates that the metatranscriptome of the protistan community in termites contains an abundance of lignocellulase, which plays a vital role in termite nutrition.