Ultrastructural Of Infrabuccal Pocket Of Camponotus Japonicus Mayr And Bacterial Composition Associated With Its Content

Infrabuccal pocket is the special pouch-like filtration device that locates in preoral cavityof ants. In the feeding process of ants，solid food particles and other solid materials arefiltered and compacted into pellet in infrabuccal pocket before entering alimentary tract, andthen they were ejected from preoral cavity later. The filtration mechanism prevent alimentarytract from blocking.In order to understand the ultrafine structure of infrabuccal pocket and its possiblemicrobial population in content and their potential role in digestion, cleaning and otheraspects of the ants, we observed ultrafine structure of infrabuccal pocket and bacterialcompositon in its contents.1. The ultrafine structure of infrabuccal pocket under scanning electron microscope andtransmission electron microscope showed that:(1) Infrabuccal pocket is a pouch-like structurelocates in posterior oral cavity, and connects to anterior pharynx with buccal plate. Its theouter surface has a mesh-like structure. The prominence of mesh-like structure is composedof connective tissue, having a strong elasticity.(2) A large number microvilli spread over inthe internal surface of infrabuccal pocket’s entrance and exit, and they can keep the contentstay in infrabuccal pocket and prevent large solid particles into the esophagus, this canmaintain the digestive tract unblocked.（3）Dorsal region of infrabuccal pocket contains somecells with wrinkles, and the structure of these cells aresimilar with gut cells, playing a role ofgland. There are a large number of mitochondrias, secretory vesicle and secretory granules inthe top compartment of cell. And in the bottom of cell contains numerous endoplasmicreticulum and dense vesicles.(4) some microorganisism were found, they are similar withsaccharomycetes, bacteria and actinomyces.2. We use culture-dependent method and16S rRNA gene sequence analysis to isolate thebacterial associated with content in infrabuccal pocket of C. japonicus Mayr. The resultsshowed:(1) the cfu/g of bacteria in content of infrabuccal pocket were clearly different, andgreater than those in corresponding nest soil.（2）11bacteria strains were isolated frominfrabuccal pocket, and they belong to Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and γ-proteobacteria.Microbacterium was the dominant bacteria in colony1and colony2, accounting for47.83% �'�49.73%; Acinetobacter was the dominant bacteria in colony3, accounting for37.27%. Thedominant bacteria in three nest soil were all Bacillus, accounting for49.69%、56.22%and44.79%respectively.(2) All bacteria isolated from nest soil can be found in infrabuccalpocket, and the bacteria between infrabuccal pocket and nest soil showed different in samecolony. Our result showed there are diverse bacteria in content in infrabuccal pocket, and theirroles in food digestion and cleaning in ant need further study.