Termite mounds contain soil-derived methanotroph communities kinetically adapted to elevated methane concentrations

Eleonora Chiri; Chris Greening; Rachael Lappan; David W Waite; Thanavit Jirapanjawat; Xiyang Dong; Stefan K Arndt; Philipp A Nauer

Journal article

Termite mounds contain soil-derived methanotroph communities kinetically adapted to elevated methane concentrations

Eleonora Chiri, Chris Greening, Rachael Lappan, David W Waite, Thanavit Jirapanjawat, Xiyang Dong, Stefan K Arndt, Philipp A Nauer

The ISME Journal: multidisciplinary journal of microbial ecology | Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com] | Published : 2020

DOI: 10.1038/s41396-020-0722-3

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Abstract

Termite mounds have recently been confirmed to mitigate approximately half of termite methane (CH4) emissions, but the aerobic CH4 oxidising bacteria (methanotrophs) responsible for this consumption have not been resolved. Here, we describe the abundance, composition and CH4 oxidation kinetics of the methanotroph communities in the mounds of three distinct termite species sampled from Northern Australia. Results from three independent methods employed show that methanotrophs are rare members of microbial communities in termite mounds, with a comparable abundance but distinct composition to those of adjoining soil samples. Across all mounds, the most abundant and prevalent methane monooxygena..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Stefan Arndt Author

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Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by Swiss National Science Foundation Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowships

Awarded by ARC DECRA Fellowship

Awarded by NHMRC EL2 Fellowship

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank Lindsay Hutley and Matthew Northwood for technical and logistical assistance, Andreas Brune for an inspiring correspondence, and the three anonymous reviewers for suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by Australian Research Council grants (DP120101735 and LP100100073 awarded to SKA), Swiss National Science Foundation Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowships (P2EZP3_178421 awarded to EC; P2EZP3_155596 awarded to PAN), an ARC DECRA Fellowship (DE170100310 awarded to CG), an NHMRC EL2 Fellowship (APP1178715; salary for CG), the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) OzFlux, and the TERN Australian SuperSite Network.