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Czech and Belgian Scientists Reveal the Secret of Tropical Forests
The issue of the journal Science from 27 July 2012 brings results of the cooperation between Czech scientists from the
Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the ASCR, Charles University and Masaryk University and their colleagues
from Belgium and Japan. The joint efforts of the assorted team of biologists and chemists have made it possible to describe the
unique mechanism of the chemical defence of the tropical termites of the Neocapritermes taracua species.
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The entire study was initiated by the observations by the colleagues J. Šobotník and T. Bourguignon during their work in French Guyana.
With one of the many termite species of the rainforest there, the two natural scientists observed odd blue structures on the bodies of
the workers. To their surprise, these workers reacted to irritation by a suicidal explosion. A subsequent research of the anatomy,
behaviour and chemical aspects of this phenomenon has shown that it is a unique defence strategy of the workers, which they use in
their defence against their competitors from among the other species of soil-feeding termites. This as-yet unknown mechanism consists
of a chemical reaction between two components: blue 'crystals' of proteinaceous origin, stored in special pouches outside the body,
and the secretions of the workers' salivary glands. These two components react in a haemolymph drop after the explosion of the worker's
body and give rise to a sticky fluid, which is also toxic for competing species. The work published under the title
Explosive Backpacks in Old Termite Workers
further discusses the adaptive aspects of this strategy, which does not appear with the workers until in a later
phase of their life, like the transition to dangerous and defensive activities after the attainment of a certain age was observed with
other representatives of social insects.
The picture on the left shows a worker of the Neocapritermes taracua after it 'exploded' in a defensive reaction to an
irritation and its body excreted a haemolymph drop, which became toxic through a reaction between the proteins of blue crystals and
the secretions of salivary glands. The picture on the right shows a blue crystal, stored in a special pouch on the body's surface.
Selected responses in media
Contact: e-mail: sobotnik@uochb.cas.cz (Jan Šobotník),
robert@uochb.cas.cz (Robert Hanus)
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