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Mycophagous mites and their internal associated bacteria cooperate to digest chitin in soil

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Abstract

The greater bulk of soil nitrogen is immobilized in chitinous cell walls of fungi. Mycophagous soil mites participate in chitin decomposition and, hence, in the subsequent mobilization of nitrogen. The source of the chitinolytic enzymes was searched in this study. A multimethodical approach was designed for these studies. Histology, plating and identification of bacteria from mite homogenate and, finally, homogenate and bacterial treatment of the soil fungi were applied. Here the presence and activity of chitinolytic bacteria inside mycophagous mites are reported. These bacteria form an extraintestinal group within the mite’s body and pass their enzymes into the mite’s gut. Our results demonstrate that true mycophagous mites, defined by their ability to digest chitin (i.e. the fungal cell wall), achieve this through internal “cooperation” with chitinolytic bacteria that provide the necessary chitinolytic enzymes. The nitrogen from chitin is thus made available to other soil organisms and plants.

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Acknowledgements

The fieldwork and histological work for this study were supported by Grant No. 526/07/0393 from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. The other laboratory work was supported by grant MSM 0021620828 from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic. We wish to thank ing.M.Doubek, State Health Institute, Prague, for his very kind help with the TEM observations, prof.dr.J.Vávra, Department of Parasitology, Charles University, Prague, who rendered possible to make the ultramicrotome sections and mgr.T.Erban for his information about Dermatophagoides chitinases. We wish to thank also Mrs. Milada Řeháková for her technical help.

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  1. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Charles University, Viničná 7, CZ-128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Smrž & Vlasta Čatská

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  1. Jaroslav Smrž
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  2. Vlasta Čatská
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Correspondence to Jaroslav Smrž.

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Smrž, J., Čatská, V. Mycophagous mites and their internal associated bacteria cooperate to digest chitin in soil. Symbiosis 52, 33–40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-010-0099-6

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