When an earthworm eats a dead or decayed plant, it is taking in normally hazardous toxins, but new research details how that is possible.
According to Discovery News, authors of a study published in the journal Nature Communications noticed earthworms have a certain guttural molecules that protects them from the toxins found throughout their diet.
"Without drilodefensins, fallen leaves would remain on the surface of the ground for a very long time, building up to a thick layer," study co-author Jake Bundy, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, said in a press release. "Our countryside would be unrecognizable, and the whole system of carbon cycling would be disrupted."
Earthworms are equipped with a specific kind of molecule that protects against a toxin found in dead and decaying plants that make them hard to digest. Earthworms can then go on with their day, returning carbon to the soil in which they dwell.
"We've established that earthworms, referred to as 'nature's ploughs' by Charles Darwin, have a metabolic coping mechanism to deal with a range of leaf litter diets," study co-author Dave Spurgeon, of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said in the release. "In this role, drilodefensin support the role of earthworm as key "ecosystem engineers" within the carbon cycle."
