Fungal diversity of fungus comb in termite nests
白蚁巢菌圃真菌多样性研究

Fungus-growing termites cultivate fungi on a substrate called fungus comb inside their nests or dispersed around neighborhood soil. When fungus comb is incubated without termites, fruiting bodies of the ascomycete genus Xylaria are prevailing. Four comb samples were collected from nests of fungus-growing termites belonging to the genus Odontotermes in Sichuan and Yunnan Province in southwestern China and 40 fungal strains divided into 13 morphotypes of Xylaria were isolated. Xylaria isolates were identified as two different species based on ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences. To clarify the entire fungal community especially changes of the comb between a termite-activated nest and an abandoned one, ITS gene libraries were set up. Data analysis clearly demonstrated that fungus combs were monocultures of Termitomyces when fungus-growing termites live in the nest; but when they were abandoned for some time, they turned out to be polycultures of Trichoderma, Xylaria and other fungi.