Protein- and RNA-Enhanced Fermentation by Gut Microbiota of the Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris.

ABSTRACT: Earthworms are a dominant macrofauna in soil ecosystems and have determinative effects on soil fertility and plant growth. These invertebrates feed on ingested material, and gizzard-linked disruption of ingested fungal and bacterial cells is conceived to provide diverse biopolymers in the anoxic alimentary canals of earthworms. Fermentation in the gut is likely important to the utilization of ingested biopolymer-derived compounds by the earthworm. This study therefore examined the fermentative responses of gut content-associated microbes of the model earthworm Lumbricus terrestris to (i) microbial cell lysate (to simulate gizzard-disrupted cells) and (ii) dominant biopolymers of such biomass, protein, and RNA. The microbial cell lysate augmented the production of H₂, CO

SUBMITTER: Zeibich L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5960956 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature