Localizing transcripts to single cells suggests an important role of uncultured deltaproteobacteria in the termite gut hydrogen economy
Abstract
Most environments host a poorly understood microbial diversity. In recent years, work on gene inventories and metagenomics has revealed much about the microbial species and metabolic genes that may be present in situ; however, connecting microbial species with environmental function has lagged. Here a combination of emerging single-cell and other approaches revealed the gut microbes that may catalyze a key activity in their termite hosts. The results implicate a previously unappreciated deltaproteobacterium living on a gut protist.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- October 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1307876110
- Bibcode:
- 2013PNAS..11016163R