Metaphire guillelmi exhibited predominant capacity of arsenic efflux

Abstract

Earthworm could regulate their body concentration of arsenic via storage or excretion, and the ability of As efflux among different earthworms is not consistent. Here, whole and semi As exposure patterns with 0-10-30-60-100 mg kg−1 exposure concentrations were set to characterize the As efflux in geophagous earthworm, Metaphire guillelmi. Cast As (As–C) and earthworms’ antioxidative responses were monitored to explore the efflux mechanisms under 30 mg kg−1 As-spiked soil (As30), besides, As concentration in earthworm tissue after egestion and dissection depurations were compared. In the whole exposure pattern, As concentration in gut content (As-G, 19.2–120.3 mg kg−1) surpassed that in the tissue (As-T, 17.2–53.2 mg kg−1), and they both increased with exposure concentrations. With the prolong time, they firstly increased and kept stable between day 10–15, then As-G increased while As-T decreased between day 15–20. In the semi-exposure pattern, both As-G and As-T decreased when M. guillelmi was transferred to clean soil for 5 days. During the 42-day incubation in As30, the antioxidative responses including reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione (GSH) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were firstly increased and then decreased, and As–C (13.9–43.9 mg kg−1) kept higher than As-G (14.2–35.1 mg kg−1). Significantly positive correlations were found between As-T and GSH, As–C and GST. Moreover, tissue As after dissection (11.6–22.9 mg kg−1) was obviously lower than that after egestion (11.4–26.4 mg kg−1), but significantly related to ROS and GSH. Taken together, M. guillelmi exhibited excellent capacity of As efflux, and GSH explained tissue As accumulation while GST facilitated the As elimination via cast. Besides, dissection instead of egestion revealed the As efflux in M. guillelmi more accurately. These findings contributed to a better understanding of how geophagous earthworm M. guillelmi regulated tissue As accumulation for As stress tolerance, and recommended an optimal depuration mode to characterize As accumulation.