Untangling the Volcanic Earthworm Genome

There are several genetically different lineages of Pontoscolex corethrurus, some of which may be separate species. This is a problem we are also studying. When we observe that "P. corethrurus" is found in widely varying conditions, including extreme, we cannot yet be sure that we are talking about the same "species" of worm. So it is possible that the populations you have in India are the same as the Azores populations, or not. Only detailed examination and DNA data can tell for sure.

Thank you Patricia!

Thank you Aleks, it was a great journey!

Hi Husni thanks and congratulations also to you and your team! All the luck!

A special “thank you” to Pacific Biosciences, Experiment.com, Sage Science and Computomics for enabling this opportunity, in particular to you and Genome Galaxy initiative for keeping us motivated in such endeavour. I hope this is just the beginning of something huge for Earthworm's science! Cheers

Thank you Nicolas. It was a long and fun campaign (a but tiring sometimes) but so rewarding. Keep an eye on this project webpage. We will keep you all updated!

Thanks for the tip Charlene. Maybe Sam James is already aware of this particular animal. I will check!

All towards earthworm's science and related scientists. Wouldn't be possible without your support! Thank you.

Agree! Luis did an extraordinary job with this crowdfunding campaign. Glad to see the community come in behind him to support this project!

Good luck team firefly! I see you are almost there! Will be great to see what insights both genomes will be able to provide! Cheers!

Dear Juan, Really happy to have your support and thanks for your contribution. I am sure that this genome will provide some insights about the invasiveness capacity of Pontoscolex. Cheers!

We have a constitutively bioluminescent worm's transcriptome. If you have a bioluminescent worm handy, I am sure we can do more. A colleague of mine is really keen to get others.

¡Gracias! esperamos poder dar muy buenas noticias pronto. Saludos.

It's great to see earthworm's science spreading around the globe. Getting a bit anxious about the timing.

Thank you very much for the contribution George, we will keep you updated!

Dear Kirk, It’s an honour to see your name as one of our supporters. Thank you for your contribution and words. Ultimately that exactly what we want to do. We have been accumulating data on the anatomy, cellular morphology and some behavioural traits, which in the end will be integrated with gene expression (transcriptomics) and the genome data, in order to build a more comprehensive story. I also would love to see this genome to provide new insights about the relation between the different Annelida members. Thank you.

Really appreciate your comment and contribution and I hope we can get you some answers really soon. I completely agree that its microbiome has much to reveal and sure plays a great role in the story, and it would be a great if microbiomes could be the next step in Pontoscolex genomics. By the way, I would like to mention that you are part of the Pontoscolex genome story since we did the field work in Vera Cruz. Will keep you updated.

Thank you, I really hope it does!

Dear John, Thank you very much for your contribution. I really hope we reach the funding goal and we get the genome out as soon as possible. It will be a marvellous resource for earthworm biologists. The same applies to L. rubellus and I hope to have some news about it soon. Best wishes!

Dear Vasco Garcia, It is a real honour to read your words. I hope more people, in particular students at the University of Azores get interested by the amazing opportunities available in these extreme volcanic environments. Thank you very much for your contribution and please keep spreading the word.

Hi Jenny, Thank again for the contribution and I really hope you are right about the potential collaborations. This little animal shows so many study questions and possibilities that we would love that other researchers could jump in and help to untangle the volcanic earthworm biological story, assessing microbiomes is a must thing to do, also.

Hi Thibaud, That’s a really great insight about the phenomenon Pontoscolex, we are building a lab note about that and we should get it online very soon! Thank you very much for the info and contribution.

Hi Mike, we would love to know your ideas. No one is working at the moment with this earthworm gut microbiome and we would love to discuss a potential collaboration and even share some preliminary data, we are really interested in that. But first we need to get the genome sequenced.

No that we are aware of, but a couple of their "cousins" are marine (Polychaeta) and there are some freshwater, aquatic and semi-aquatic oligochaetes.

Whether the colonization was a singular or multiple events, and whether the main immigration agent was ‘natural' or anthropogenic we are not sure, it is probable that the species experienced a genetic bottleneck evidenced by the low mitochondrial diversity in animals living inside the geothermal field. We are not sure how the animals got into the Island, but we are sure that they already show signatures of selection potentially associated with the stressful environment.

Hi Misha - not sure about reptiles, but in deserts: the Sahara Desert Ant (Cataglyphis bicolor) can forage at temperatures above 50 deg C (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7708762). Tardigrades can withstand even crazier temperatures (although not in deserts). With tardigrades it was thought that this may be related to high levels of horizontal gene transfer (http://www.pnas.org/content/112/52/15976.short although it seems that that original paper overestimated the extent that it occurred in the genome: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/04/14/1603862113.short) - something that we are hoping to look into with the Pontoscolex genome!

Extremophilic worms can be used as a source of novel AntiMicrobial Peptides. BTW, for those interested to do it as a PhD project: http://dsbsoc.org/indeep/phd-position-antibiotics-in-extremophile-nematode-worms-france/ Also, there is a possibility that such studies will eventually allow to make humans more resistant to extreme environments. Although, this is more of a sci-fi at the moment.

There are so many advantages to be mentioned about how important research on these animals. I selected a few for you. These specific molecules are just a couple of example of the genome research potential in this animal: 1. The unique giant extracellular haemoglobin molecule (unique to annelids) is already being exploited as oxygen carrier to aid organ transplantation (see here: http://tiny.cc/zil9ay ). 2. Earthworm drilodefensins are key molecules for carbon cycling in any ecosystem (see here: http://tiny.cc/bpl9ay) 3. Earthworm lysenin (see here: http://tiny.cc/itl9ay) may be a key molecule for developing treatments against harmful cells (parasites, cancer cells, etc) In the volcanic earthworm we are very keen in understanding how the earthworm cells respond to very low oxygen levels as this cellular environment is not uncommon in a variety of tumor micro-environments

I'd bet they have an enhanced chaperone machinery rather than thermostabilized proteins.

The upper limit for animals seems to be around 50°C. Some fungi can be more heat tolerant: for example, Chaetomium thermophilum can grow at up to 60°C (optimum - 50–55°C) and holds great promise for structural biology (http://www.nature.com/articles/srep20937). "The thermal limit for metazoan life, expected to be around 50°C, has been debated since the discovery of the Pompeii worm Alvinella pompejana, which colonizes black smoker chimney walls at deep-sea vents. A comparison with hsp70 stress gene expressions of individuals analysed directly after sampling in situ confirms that Alvinella pompejana does not experience long-term exposures to temperature above 50°C in its natural environment. The thermal optimum is nevertheless beyond 42°C, which confirms that the Pompeii worm ranks among the most thermotolerant metazoans." "A. pompejana ranks among the most thermotolerant metazoan species. Interspecies comparisons for thermal limit/tolerance remain however a difficult issue, due to the variety of indexes and protocols used to evaluate the animals’ thermal scope. The highest thermal tolerance limits estimated for any animal were previously reported in the hot springs ostracod Potamocypris sp., which survived prolonged exposures to 49°C [24], and in the desert ants Cataglyphis bombycina and Cataglyphis bicolor based on their critical maximum temperature (CTmax 55°C and 54°C [25]). More recently, the alvinellid Paralvinella sulfincola was proven highly thermotolerant based on its preference for temperatures in the 40°–50°C zone and its ability to withstand short exposures at 55°C (thermal limit 50–55°C [17], [18]). A. pompejana can be suggested to share a similar thermal preference with the alvinellid P. sulfincola, and clearly has a shifted stress response to higher temperatures when compared to the desert ants. The ant response reached its highest point at 37°C and ended around 45°C [25] while A. pompejana should yield its highest expression in the 42°C–55°C range." http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064074

http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v112/n2/full/hdy201384a.html#bib20

Dear Misha, thanks for the pertinent question. The quick answer is an average of 38 C, sounds not too high but if you include the thermal daily differential, which is 10 C, it means they can withstand values from a minimum of 28 to 48C. Now mix CO2 levels (in soil) of 20 to 50% and low pH (~5) and high metal bioavailability, and that brings the multifactorial stress that the worm is able to withstand. Also, the geothermal field is highly heterogeneous in terms of intensity and also vary with atmospheric pressure. If they move a bit from the hot soil they are in normal ambient temperature, which are around 18C. The volcanic. Given the relative ease in the accessibility of such populations it is remarkable that these terrestrial metazoan communities appear to be much less well understood than the charismatic marine invertebrate fauna living adjacent to hydrothermal vents. Please check the work of Fatima Viveiros, a Volcanologist working at the Azores university that has developed a wonderful work on the characterization of this environment.

Sure!, these are inhabited islands belonging to Portugal, you can travel there by airplane and enjoy the beauty of the place. Highly recommended!!

I am going to add a lab note about S. Miguel island, with some landscape photos to persuade your visit!