Research of New Enzyme Producing Strains in the Gut of the Termite Reticulitermes santonensis

Termites contain a complex microflora inside of their guts. Inferior termites contain bacteria, mycetes and protists that interact to degrade vegetable components. These strains act as consortia to break natural materials by secreting various enzymes. Our aim was the isolation and cultivation of microorganisms in order to produce new enzymes that can be further used in green chemistry. Termites were fed with different diets: pinewood, microcristalline cellulose (added with lignin or not), α-cellulose (added with lignin or not) and birchwood xylan. Then, dissections were realized to isolate interesting strains. All the microorganisms were subjected to enzyme assays. That technique allowed us to isolate and to cultivate various strains of bacteria, molds and protists. Three strains of bacteria, two strains of molds and one strain of protist were isolated and displayed different enzymatic activities. The bacteria Bacillus subtilis strain ABGx, Bacillus sp. strain CTGx and Chryseobacterium sp. strain CTGx displayed amylase, cellulase and xylanase activities. The molds Trichoderma virens strain CTGx and Sarocladium kiliense strain CTGx were also able to produce those enzymes. However, the protist Poterioochromonas sp. was found to produce only amylase. In conlusion, the termite gut is a complex culivation medium that provides a habitat for many microorganisms that show interesting enzymatic activities.