From the marine environment, woodlice gradually colonized terrestrial areas benefiting from the symbiotic relationship with the bacterial community that they host. Indeed, they constitute the only group of Oniscidea suborder that has succeed to accomplish their lives in terrestrial even desert surfaces. Herein they play an important role in the dynamic of ecosystems and the decomposition of litter. So to enhance our understanding of the sea-land transition and other process like decomposition and digestion of detritus, we studied the bacterial community associated with 11 specimens of terrestrial isopods belonging to six species using a Culture independent approach (DGGE). Bands sequencing showed that the cosmopolitan species Porcellionides pruinosus has the most microbial diversity. Screening demonstrated the predominance of Proteobacteria followed by members from Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Cyanobacteria phyla. In fact we detected some symbionts like Wolbachia, Mycoplasma and Spiroplasma for the first time in a terrestrial isopod species.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.