Advance of molecular study on the genus Odontotermes

The species of genus Odontotermes as kinds of higher fungus-growing termites, they play an important role in natural ecosystem, meanwhile are harmful to agricultural crops, forests, reservoir dams and wood building, which made them to be concerned widely. As development of molecular technology and genomic resources, more termite researchers incorporate molecular techniques into their approaches, it can be expected accelerating advances in all aspects of the biology of this genus. The shortcoming of traditional classification of termites was summarized, the advantage of molecular taxonomy on termites was compared, and the statute of research progress of taxonomy on the genus Odototermes was presented by now. The origin of Odontotermes was retrospected, the relationship of species of Odontotermes between Indian and China was analyzed, the systematic of subfamily Mcrotermitinae was reviewed, the phylogeny of Odontotermes was summarized with detail. The classified position between Odontotermes and Hypotermes was discussed. The co-evolution relationship between the hosts Odontotermes and their farming fungi and other symbionts was concluded. For deeply understanding the biology and taxonomy of Odontotermes and developing direction of study on this genus all of globe in recent years, an outlook on the molecular research of genus Odontotermes using new techniques was given.