Abstract
Many recent breakthroughs in our understanding of termite biology have been facilitated by “omics” research. Omic science seeks to collectively catalog, quantify, and characterize pools of biological molecules that translate into structure, function, and life processes of an organism. Biological molecules in this context include genomic DNA, messenger RNA, proteins, and other biochemicals. Other permutations of omics that apply to termites include sociogenomics, which seeks to define social life in molecular terms (e.g., behavior, sociality, physiology, symbiosis, etc.) and digestomics, which seeks to define the collective pool of host and symbiont genes that collaborate to achieve high-efficiency lignocellulose digestion in the termite gut. This review covers a wide spectrum of termite omic studies from the past 15 years. Topics covered include a summary of terminology, the various kinds of omic efforts that have been undertaken, what has been revealed, and to a degree, what the results mean. Although recent omic efforts have contributed to a better understanding of many facets of termite and symbiont biology, and have created important new resources for many species, significant knowledge gaps still remain. Crossing these gaps can best be done by applying new omic resources within multi-dimensional (i.e., functional, translational, and applied) research programs.
Highlights
Overview and Terminology In a broad sense, the underlying goals of omic1 science are to catalog, quantify, and characterize pools of biological molecules that translate into structure, function, and life processes of an organism or environment
Emphasis was placed mostly on cellulose digestion, which revealed a rich complement of glycosyl hydrolases from host, fungi, and gut microbes that likely collaborate in lignocellulose digestion
This line of research has already begun to transform the view of protist diversity and co-evolution with host termites but more studies are needed in different termite species with established omic resources
Summary
Overview and Terminology In a broad sense, the underlying goals of omic science are to catalog, quantify, and characterize pools of biological molecules that translate into structure, function, and life processes of an organism or environment. A parallel idea cited as rationale for many omic studies in social insects, including termites, is that solitary genes and traits were likely co-opted for new functions as solitary ancestors transitioned to social lifestyles (West-Eberhard, 2003; Nelson et al, 2007) Understanding such traits is essential for understanding termite social evolution (Miura and Scharf, 2011; Figure 2B). Another term used in relation to digestive research is digestomics, which was coined to describe the collective pool of host and symbiont genes that collaborate to achieve high-efficiency lignocellulose digestion in the termite gut (Scharf and Tartar, 2008; Tartar et al, 2009; Figure 2A). Hypothesis-driven (JHA up and downregulated genes) Hypothesis-driven (JHA induced gene expression)
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