Insect gut microbiology and symbiosis

Prof. Dr. Andreas Brune

 

Research Area

Termite guts are tiny bioreactors converting lignocellulose to microbial fermentation products that fuel the metabolism of the host. My research group studies the role of the gut microbiota in the symbiotic digestion of wood, focusing on the structure and functions of the gut microbiome, the biology of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic symbionts and their interactions, and the evolution of the intestinal microbial community. Other aspects are the microbial processes in the guts of humivorous soil macrofauna, such as soil-feeding termites, scarab beetle larvae, and millipedes.

 

Recent publications:

Protasov, E., Nonoh, J.O., Kästle Silva, J.M., Mies, U.S., Hervé, V., Dietrich, C., Lang, K., Mikulski, L., Platt, K., Poehlein, A., Köhler-Ramm, T., Miambi, E., Boga, H.I., Feldewert, C., Ngugi, D.K., Plarre, R., Sillam-Dussès, D., Šobotník, J., Daniel, R., Brune, A. (2023)
Diversity and taxonomic revision of methanogens and other archaea in the intestinal tract of terrestrial arthropods. Front. Microbiol. 14: 1281628. (Online)
Treitli, S.C., Hanousková, P., Beneš, V., Brune, A., Cepicka, I., Hampl, V. (2023)
Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis is the key process in the obligately syntrophic consortium of the anaerobic ameba Pelomyxa schiedti. ISME J. 17: 1884–1894. (Online)
Arora, J., Bucek, A., Hellemans, S., Beránková, T., Romero Arias, J., Fisher, B.L., Clitheroe, C., Brune, A., Kinjo, Y., Šobotník, J., Bourguignon, T. (2023)
Evidence of cospeciation between termites and their gut bacteria on a geological time scale. Proc. R. Soc. B. 290: 20230619. (Online)
Radek, R., Platt, K., Öztas, D., Šobotník, J., Sillam-Dussès, D., Hanus, R., Brune, A. (2023)
New insights into the coevolutionary history of termites and their gut flagellates: Description of Retractinympha glossotermitis gen. nov. sp. nov. (Retractinymphidae fam. nov.). Front. Ecol. Evol. 11: 1111484. (Online)
Brune, A., Mies, U.S. (2023)
Elusimicrobiota. In: Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria (W.B. Whitman, F. Rainey, P. Kämpfer, M. Trujillo, J. Chun, P. DeVos, B. Hedlund and S. Dedysh, eds.). Wiley Online Library. (Online)

Complete publication list

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