The bacterial community structures in response to the gut passage of earthworm (Eisenia fetida) feeding on cow dung and domestic sludge: Illumina high-throughput sequencing-based data analysis

Abstract

Diets are shown to be capable of shaping the gut microbiota of earthworm, while the effects of distinct foods on bacterial communities of different digestive tracts of earthworm are unknown. For this purpose, cow dung (CD) and domestic sludge (DS) were chosen as diets for earthworms (Eisenia fetida), and different gut contents, namely gizzard + foregut area, hindgut, and mature vermi-compost were sampled for Illumina sequencing analysis. We found that there existed significant reductions in bacterial diversity and abundance in the gizzard + foregut area, where there were stable bacteria with the ability of biodegradation of xenobiotics, such as Amycolatopsis, Methylobacterium, Ralstonia, Ochrobactrum, and Sphingomonas. The decreases could be recovered in the hindgut and mature vermi-compost to different extents, suggesting that a bottleneck effect on the bacterial community occurred in the gizzard + foregut area. Beta-Proteobacteria was the most abundant subclass regardless of the different diets, and bacteria affiliated with gamma-, delta- and epsilon-subclasses were taken as food by the earthworms. Vermi-composts based on the various diets should be used differently according to different aims.

Keywords: Bacterial community; Earthworm; Gut passage; Illumina sequencing.