%0 Journal Article
%9 ACL : Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture répertoriées par l'AERES
%A Guedegbe, Herbert
%A Houngnandan, P.
%A Roman, Jocelyne
%A Rouland-Lefèvre, Corinne
%T Patterns of substrate degradation by some microfungi from fungus-growing termite combs (Isoptera : Termitidae : Macrotermitinae)
%D 2008
%L PAR00003051
%G ENG
%J Sociobiology
%@ 0361-6525
%K Microfungi ; Substrate utilization ; Lignin derivatives ; Fungus comb
%M ISI:000259832500005
%N 3
%P 525-541
%U https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/PAR00003051
%V 52
%W Horizon (IRD)
%X To investigate the functional role of microfungi occuring in fungus-growing termite combs, we performed fungal isolation from combs of three fungus-growing termite species and screened the capacity of different isolates to use various substrates including carbohydrates and lignin derivatives. Seven strains were isolated in this study and Blast of ITS sequences revealed that all belonged to the Ascomycete phylum. A great variation in substrate utilization was found among microfungi and dendrogram analysis based on the different enzymes released clearly distinguished two main groups of microfungi. The first contained the majority of the isolates which were mainly characterized by xylanase and amylase productions, whereas cellulase was generally not secreted. This, combined with the inability to utilize complex substrates such as tannic, gallic, ferulic and syringic acids, suggested that species of this group were probably latent saprobes and not specifically involved in fungus-growing termite symbiosis. The second group contained one phylotype belonging to genus Paecilomyces which was capable of degrading most of the tested substrates to a higher extent. This latter strain exhibited similar enzymatic activities to the symbiotic cultivars and we therefore discussed the probable implication of Paecilomyces spp. in material degradation of the combs' lignocellulose.
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