title: Gut bacterial communities in the giant land snail Achatina fulica and their modification by sugarcane-based diet.
abstract: The invasive land snail Achatina fulica is one of the most damaging agricultural pests worldwide representing a potentially serious threat to natural ecosystems and human health. This species is known to carry parasites and harbors a dense and metabolically active microbial community; however, little is known about its diversity and composition. Here, we assessed for the first time the complexity of bacterial communities occurring in the digestive tracts of field-collected snails (FC) by using culture-independent molecular analysis. Crop and intestinal bacteria in FC were then compared to those from groups of snails that were reared in the laboratory (RL) on a sugarcane-based diet. Most of the sequences recovered were novel and related to those reported for herbivorous gut. Changes in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were observed when the snails were fed a high-sugar diet, suggesting that the snail gut microbiota can influence the energy balance equation. Furthermore, this study represents a first step in gaining a better understanding of land snail gut microbiota and shows that this is a complex holobiont system containing diverse, abundant and active microbial communities.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. amcardoso@bioqmed.ufrj.br
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: Janaína J V
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Cavalcante
authors.forename: Ricardo P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Joyce L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Maria Angela B
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Grieco
authors.forename: Maysa M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Clementino
authors.forename: Ana Tereza R
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Eloi S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Wanderley
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Rodolpho M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Albano
authors.forename: Orlando B
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Martins
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004032:Diet; D004064:Digestive System / Q000382:microbiology; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome; D010802:Phylogeny; D031786:Saccharum; D012908:Snails / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000472:pathogenicity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial