Meeting Abstract

P2.220  Saturday, Jan. 5  Isolation of toxin-degrading bacteria from the gut of an herbivorous rodent STENGEL, A.*; KOHL, K.D.; DEARING, M.D.; University of Utah; University of Utah; University of Utah ashley.stengel@comcast.net

For decades, it has been suggested that gut microbes facilitate ingestion of toxic diets by herbivores through microbial degradation of plant secondary compounds. We isolated tannin-protein complex degrading bacteria (T-PCDB) from the feces of the desert woodrat (Neotoma lepida), which feeds largely on a tannin-rich plant, creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Feces were plated on tannin-treated agar, and isolates exhibiting zones of clearance were further characterized through 16S rRNA sequencing and measurement of tannase activity. We characterized 9 isolates belonging to 4 species, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, and Escherichia coli. Isolates of E. cloacae did not show positive tannase activity. Tannase activity of other isolates varied significantly by bacterial species, as well as isolate within a species. We propose that these T-PCDB facilitate the ingestion of tannin-rich plants by herbivores. This hypothesis can be more easily tested in the future given that we now have both functional characterization and 16S rRNA sequences for T-PCDB.