Journal
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
Volume 57, Issue -, Pages 957-959Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2012.08.012
Keywords
Wood-feeding termite; Soil-feeding termite; Pyrolysis-MS; Difference spectra; Faeces; Lignin; Peptides
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Changes in biopolymer products during transit of the intestine in two termites with contrasting feeding habits were quantified by pyrolysis mass-spectrometry. In Zootermopsis nevadensis, a wood-feeder, native lignin-derived fractions increased in the faeces, with little indication of modification or degradation, but 62% of hexose polymer and 43% of xylan were degraded. In the soil-feeding Cubitermes ugandensis, polysaccharide and alkene-derived mass ions were enriched in faeces while amino acid-derived ions were depleted, consistent with a proposed model of fermentative digestion supported by peptides released from soil organic matter. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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