• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.149-156
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• 2014

Termites are wood pests that cause vast economic damage every year. They digest both cellulose and starch, but the enzymes for starch digestion have not been well characterized. We obtained complete amino acid sequence information on the KME1 ${\alpha}$-amylase from Reticulitermes speratus KMT1 through analysis of total mRNA sequences. The KME1 enzyme has two ${\alpha}$-amylase domains and is 68% identical to the ${\alpha}$-amylase from Blattellager manica, its closest relative in the GenBank database. Some unique features of its conserved region and its distant evolutionary relationship to other insect ${\alpha}$-amylases suggest that KME1 is a new type of ${\alpha}$-amylase.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.371-380
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• 2019

Termites are pests that cause serious economic and cultural damage by digesting wood cellulose. Termites are arthropods and have an epidermis surrounded by a chitin layer. To maintain a healthy epidermis, termites have chitinase (${\beta}$-1,4-poly-N-acetyl glucosamidinase, EC 3.2.1.14), an enzyme that hydrolyzes the ${\beta}$-1,4 bond of chitin. In this study, the amino acid sequence of the gene, which is presumed to be termite chitinolytic enzyme (NCBI accession no. KC477099), was obtained from a transcriptomic analysis of Reticulitermes speratus KMT001 in Bukhan Mountain, Korea. An NCBI protein BLAST search confirmed that the protein is a glycoside hydrolase family 18 (GH18). The highest homology value found was 47%, with a chitinase from Araneus ventricosus. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the KC477099 protein has the same origins as those of arthropods but has a very low similarity with other arthropod chitinases, resulting in separation at an early stage of evolution. The KC477099 protein contains two conserved motifs, which encode the general enzymatic characteristics of the GH18 group. The amino acid sequences $Asp^{156}-Trp^{157}-Glu^{158}$, which play an important role in the enzymatic activity of the GH18 group, were also present. This study suggests that the termite KC477099 protein is a new type of chitinase, which is evolutionarily distant from other insect chitinases.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• 제38권2호
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• pp.135-139
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• 2010

Reticulitermes speratus is commonly found in Asia, including Korea and Japan. We recently analyzed the 5' region of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I to perform a phylogenetic analysis of R. speratus KMT1, isolated in Seoul, Korea. Our results, using COXI, suggest that the taxonomy of R. speratus should be reconsidered with regard to the subgenus group. A similar phylogenetic analysis by COXI and COXII demonstrated the reliability of COXI genetic information in a molecular phylogenetic analysis of termites.

• 한국임산에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국산림바이오에너지학회 2011년도 정기총회 및 학술연구발표회
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• pp.53-56
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• 2011

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• 제51권4호
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• pp.270-282
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• 2023

Lower termites need symbiotic microbes for cellulose digestion. Elizabethkingia miricola strain BM10 has been proposed as a symbiotic microbe that assists in low-temperature digestion and metabolism of Reticulitermes speratus KMT1, a termite on Bukhan Mountain, Seoul, Korea. In E. miricola strain BM10, β-glucosidase genes expressed at 10℃ were identified, and the psychrophilic enzymatic characteristic was confirmed by heterogeneously expressed proteins. Crude β-glucosidase in the culture broth of E. miricola strain BM10 showed specific enzymatic properties, and its substrate affinity was 4.69 times higher than that of Cellic CTec2. Among the genes proposed as β-glucosidase, two genes, bglB_1 and bglA_2, whose gene expression was more than doubled at 10℃ than at 30℃, were identified. They were heterogeneously expressed in Escherichia coli and identified as psychrophilic enzymes with an optimal reaction temperature of about 20℃-25℃. In this study, E. miricola strain BM10, a symbiotic bacterium of lower termites, produced psychrophilic β-glucosidases that contribute to the spread of the low-temperature habitat of a lower termite, R. speratus KMT1.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• 제47권6호
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• pp.692-699
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• 2019

Elizabethkingia miricola BM10, a symbiotic bacterium, has been isolated from the hindgut of Reticulitermes speratus KMT001, a termite which occurs on Bukhan Mountain in Seoul, Korea. This strain demonstrated a symbiotic characteristic, in that it lacked endo-${\beta}$-1,4-glucanase activity, in a previous study. The major fatty acids of E. miricola BM10 were iso-$C_{15:0}$, iso-$C_{17:0}$ 3-OH, and summed feature 3 (iso-$C_{16:1}{\omega}7c/C_{16:1}{\omega}6c$). The content of iso-$C_{17:0}$ 3-OH was higher, while those of ECL 13.566, iso-$C_{17:11}{\omega}9c$, and summed feature 4 were lower than the other three type-strains of the Elizabethkingia genus. The 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis confirmed that E. miricola BM10 is a new species. The whole genome of E. miricola BM10 was sequenced. The average nucleotide identity of strain BM10 as evaluated by pairwise comparison with E. anophelis R26, E. meningoseptica ATCC 13253, and E. miricola GTC 862 was shown to be 91.5%, 81.2%, and 94.29%, respectively. Based on our study results, E. miricola BM10 appears to represent a new strain of the genus Elizabethkingia.