When termites infest a structure, the go-to solution is a powerful pesticide that’s injected into the soil surrounding it.
Since pesticides strong enough to wipe out termites also are potentially dangerous to humans and other vertebrates, researchers are eager to find “greener” eradication techniques.
Now that a team of international researchers has sequenced the genome of the Nevada dampwood termite, less toxic control may not be too far behind, according to a Purdue University entomologist who collaborated on the study.
Another spinoff of the project could be new ways of producing biofuel, said Michael Scharf, the O. Wayne Rollins/Orkin Chair in Molecular Physiology and Urban Entomology at Purdue.
“You could ask the different researchers around the world, and they might tell you something else about what they could do with this,” Scharf said of the study. “That’s what’s cool about it.”
The Nevada dampwood is the first termite to have its genome sequenced,. The study was published in the May 20 issue of Nature Communications.
While the Nevada dampwood does not cause significant damage to buildings, it is closely related to the eastern subterranean termite that is the main pest species in Indiana and the eastern United States.
Most of the gene mapping was done by a lab in China, with German, Canadian and U.S. labs contributing, Scharf said. His role was that of an annotator, whose job was to look through the data and identify termite genes and their functions.
Scharf said knowledge of the genome could lead to less invasive methods of combating the insects, which cause about $40 billion in damage and control treatment costs annually.
“While current pesticides are very effective products, the problem is that you’re injecting large volumes of them into the soil around the house,” Scharf said. “It would be nice to move to a greener technology, and that’s what the genome sequence would enable us to do.”
The sequence tells researchers which parts of the termite genetic material are responsible for specific characteristics and behaviors.
Some genes, the study points out, are responsible for the chemical communication system termites use to live cooperatively in highly organized colonies where different castes have distinct roles.
Baiting termites with small quantities of wood treated to silence the communication gene could, in theory, be just as effective as large doses of toxic chemicals.
“With termites, you don’t have to impact all of them. Targeting just a fraction of the workers could cause an entire colony to collapse,” he said.
Mapping the genome also could help researchers better understand the relationship between termites and the more than 4,000 species of microbes that live in their guts. These microbes aid in digestion and defense, but previous studies struggled to distinguish between termite and microbe genes.
“Now we specifically have the termite genome, we can see what’s termite and what’s not,” he said.
The same enzymes that termites use to digest wood could be used to break wood into simple sugars, a critical step in the production of biofuels.
“The genome provides a well-defined road map that could help us find the right cocktail of enzymes to break wood down into its simple sugars. It takes a lot of the guesswork out,” Scharf said.
Contributing: Natalie van Hoose, Purdue Agricultural Communication Service