A comparative study of gut microbiota profiles of earthworms fed in three different substrates

The gut microbiome of earthworms has a complex interdependence with the host. When the soil minerals pass through earthworm’s gut, they may affect the gut microbiota. To gain insight into the response of gut microbiota to the passed minerals, we fed earthworm ( Eisenia fetida ) on nutrient-poor soil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Symbiosis (Philadelphia, Pa.) Pa.), 2018, Vol.74 (1), p.21-29
Main Authors: Liu, Dianfeng, Lian, Bin, Wu, Chunhao, Guo, Peijun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Developmental Biology
Digestive system
Ecology
Eisenia fetida
Evolutionary Biology
Gastrointestinal tract
Intestinal microflora
Intestine
Life Sciences
Microbiology
Microbiota
Minerals
Next-generation sequencing
Organic soils
Plant Sciences
Powder
Soil microorganisms
Worms
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Summary:The gut microbiome of earthworms has a complex interdependence with the host. When the soil minerals pass through earthworm’s gut, they may affect the gut microbiota. To gain insight into the response of gut microbiota to the passed minerals, we fed earthworm ( Eisenia fetida ) on nutrient-poor soil and ore powder, and used high throughput sequencing to characterize the earthworm intestinal microbial community to find evidence for a core bacterial community of the E. fetida . The results showed that earthworms’ gut maintained a core microbiome that appeared in all samples. These core microbiota may play a significant role in a species’ environmental interactions. The composition of intestinal microbiomes varied with substrates. The earthworm guts from two nutrient-poor substrates had similar microbial communities and they were different from nutrient-rich substrate. Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were more abundant in the gut of earthworms kept on a nutrient-poor substrate such as ore powder or mineral soil than in the gut of earthworms kept in organic-rich compost soil; some of these microorganisms may help earthworms survive in nutrient-poor substrates.
ISSN:0334-5114
1878-7665
DOI:10.1007/s13199-017-0491-6