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Termites in the woodwork

Samuel Chaffron and Christian von Mering*

Author Affiliations

Institute of Molecular Biology and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.

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Genome Biology 2007, 8:229 doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-11-229

Published: 22 November 2007

Abstract

Termites eat and digest wood, but how do they do it? Combining advanced genomics and proteomics techniques, researchers have now shown that microbes found in the termites' hindguts possess just the right tools.