Incubation trial indicated the earthworm intestinal bacteria as promising biodigestor for mitigating tetracycline resistance risk in anthropogenic disturbed forest soil.

The continuous input of antibiotics due to frequent anthropogenic activities have increased the dissemination risk of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in forest soil. As soil engineers, it remains unclear whether earthworm intestinal microbial communities might play a role in controlling the ARG proliferation in forest soil. This study collected forest soil in the Yangtze River Delta, China, and its resident Metaphire guillelmi to investigate the interaction between tetracycline (50 μg kg) and the bacteria in worm gut and soil. Metagenome sequencing analysis indicated that the abundance of the total ARGs in both the soil (S2) and the worm gut (E2) was 1.3 (p < 0.001) and 1.2 (p < 0.001) times higher than the soil (S1) and (E1) without tetracycline exposure; and under tetracycline stress, the relative abundance of 36 and 20 bacterial genera in forest soil and worm gut were significantly increased respectively. However, the ARGs/ARB abundance decreased in the soil with the worm addition than that without, which may be related to the fact that earthworm intestinal bacteria harbored more tetracycline-degrading genes, i.e. dehydrogenase genes adh, ETFDH, and gpr, etc. Structural equation model analysis indicated that bacteria in worm intestinal has stronger ability to degrade tetracycline than in soil, and the main dissipate way was dehydrogenation. Together, the results contributed to understanding the promising role of worm intestinal bacteria in controlling the ARG risk caused by antibiotic disturbed forest soil.