According to a statement from North Carolina State University, researchers for the first time have sequenced and analyzed the genome of one termite species, the dampwood termite.
The results draw attention to essential differences and similarities with other social insects like ants, wasps and bees, and offer insight into how social insects evolved. The results could also help scientists identify specific gene functions to create measures to control undesirable termites.
"The analysis of the termite genome is crucial to improving our understanding of decisive steps in the evolution of insects, and also of the development of social insects," said Nicolas Terrapon, one of the study's main authors and a researcher at Aix-Marseille University in France. "Termites are, in contrast to bees and ants, quite original insects, and belong to the cockroaches. Our research will help us gain a better understanding of the evolution of insects in general."
One of the differences revealed by the study is that termites have fewer receptors linked with smell than other social insects. According to Dr. R. Michael Roe, one of the study's co-authors and a professor of entomology at North Carolina State University, earlier research involving ants and bees has found that a complex chemical communication behavior system requires lots of sensory receptor genes.
"These sensory receptors may not be as important to being social as we previously believed, at least for these more primitive termites," Roe posited.
The study also discovered some essential similarities between dampwood termites and other social insects. For instance, many of the termite genes involved in sex and caste determination seem to be present in ants.
According to Massey Services Inc., termites cause more damage to homes in the U.S. than tornadoes, fires and earthquake combined — more than $5 billion annually. In fact, costs in damage to individual homes can range from the low thousands and in to the tens of thousands of dollars.
"We can use this sequence information to figure out ways of disrupting certain pathways which could have pest control implications for termites causing problems in homes," concluded Ed Vargo, one of the study's co-authors and a professor of entomology at NC State.
The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.
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Source : http://dailydigestnews.com/2014/05/first-sequencing-of-termite-genome-could-reveal-secret-to-better-pest-control/
