This
evaluation showed that six tested variables were significantly
correlated with glucose release, and from this information we are
able to begin to elucidate prokaryotic roles in R. flavipes digestion.
These six variables are abundance of all symbiont groups (aerobic
CFUs, anaerobic CFUs, protist abundance), Spirochete presence in
the 16S clone library, enzyme activity on the pNPC substrate, and
gene expression levels of the candidate bacterial cellulase GHF-43.