Biochemical biomarkers are widely used for the monitoring environmental quality since they can act as early warning signals, for potential ecosystem degradation caused by contaminants. In order to investigate the acute and chronic effects of a commercial formulation of glyphosate on antioxidant defenses (glutathione peroxidase, GPx; glutathione-S-transferase, GST; and reduced glutathione, GSH) ...

Underground community assemblies have not been studied well compared with aboveground communities, despite their importance for our understanding of whole ecosystems. To investigate underground community assembly over evolutionary timescales, we examined terrestrial earthworm communities (Oligochaeta: Haplotaxida) in conserved mountainous primary forests in Japan as a model system. We collected...

ALMOST ALL LUMBRICID EARTHWORMS (OLIGOCHAETA Lumbricidae) harbor extracellular species-specific bacterial symbionts of the genus Verminephrobacter (Betaproteobacteria) in their nephridia. The symbionts have a beneficial effect on host reproduction and likely live on their host's waste products. They are vertically transmitted and presumably associated with earthworms already at the origin of Lu...

Iron homeostasis in cells is regulated by iron regulatory proteins (IRPs) that exist in different organisms. IRPs are cytosolic proteins that bind to iron-responsive elements (IREs) of the 5'- or 3'-untranslated regions (UTR) of mRNAs that encode many proteins involved in iron metabolism. In this study, we have cloned and described a new regulatory protein belonging to the family of IRPs from t...

This study aimed at assessing the influence of soil properties on the uptake and toxicity effects of arsenic in the earthworm Eisenia andrei exposed for 4 weeks to seven natural soils spiked with different arsenic concentrations. Water-soluble soil concentrations (AsW) and internal As concentrations in the earthworms (AsE) were greatly different between soils. These two variables were highly co...

Eisenia fetida were exposed continuously to (60)Co gamma radiation during two generations (F(0) and F(1)). Adult F(0) reproduction capacity (i.e., number of cocoons produced, hatchability and number of F(1) hatchlings) in controls and at five dose rates (0.18, 1.7, 4, 11 and 43 mGy/h) was measured over a 13-week exposure period. Survival, growth and sexual maturation of F(1) hatchlings were obs...

The effects of adding the biosurfactant rhamnolipid, the lignolytic and cellulolytic fungus Phanerochete chrysosporium, and the free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter chrococcum on vermicomposting of green waste with Eisenia fetida was investigated. The addition of rhamnolipid and/or either microorganism alone or in all combinations significantly increased E. fetida growth rate, the ...