Evidence for substantial acetate presence in cutaneous earthworm mucus
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SOILS, SEC 1 • SOIL ORGANIC MATTER DYNAMICS AND NUTRIENT CYCLING • SHORT ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION
Evidence for substantial acetate presence in cutaneous earthworm mucus Ganna S. Shutenko 1 & Brian P. Kelleher 2 & André J. Simpson 3 & Ronald Soong 3 & Yalda Liaghati Mobarhan 3 & Olaf Schmidt 1,4 Received: 14 August 2019 / Accepted: 17 May 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Purpose Earthworm mucus is a ubiquitous source of C and N for soil biochemical processes and likely fuels direct interactions with other soil organisms; however, its chemical composition is little known and was the research question addressed by this research. A method was developed for the collection of sufficient amounts of cutaneous mucus from highly isotopically labelled earthworms with the objective to analyse mucus chemically by state-of-theart nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. Materials and methods A clean sand method was developed to collect cutaneous mucus from highly 13C, 15N-labelled endogeic earthworms (Allolobophora chlorotica). Mucus was analysed by 1D and 2D NMR. Results and discussion NMR spectra showed a complex mixture dominated by carbohydrates with a high aliphatic/lipid content and relatively few resonances for protein/peptide material. A very large contribution from acetate was detected, likely in the form of acetylated carbohydrates. Conclusions The ample presence of acetate is noteworthy because acetate is an important component in soil carbon cycling and methanogenic pathways. Earthworm mucus may be involved in novel direct biochemical interactions with soil (and possibly also sediment) microorganisms and plant roots that have not been recognised before. Keywords Earthworms . Nuclear magnetic resonance . Mucus . Acetate . Trophic interactions
1 Introduction
Responsible editor: Maria Manuela Abreu Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02674-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Olaf Schmidt [email protected] 1
UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
2
School of Chemical Science, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland
3
Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto M1C 1A4, Canada
4
UCD Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
The traditional, physical view is that cutaneous mucus in earthworms, secreted through gland cells in the epidermis, prevents desiccation, facilitates respiration and provides lubrication for movement through abrasive soil (Edwards and Bohlen 1996). However, considering the ubiquity and constant production of mucus in all soils inhabited by earthworms (Zhang et al. 2016), mucus is also likely to be a major agent of biochemical processes in soils, and of trophic interactions with other organisms including plants. One example of a direct trophic linkage is the feeding by Collembola on
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