Biofilm Improves Isopod Growth Independent of the Dietary Cellulose Content

Cellulose is an abundant source of carbon, accounting for more than 50% of foliage and 90% of woody tissues of plants. Despite the diversity of species that include living or dead plant tissue in their diets, the ability to digest cellulose through self-produced enzymatic machinery is considered rare in the animal kingdom. The majority of animals studied to date rely on the cellulolytic activity of symbiotic microorganisms in their digestive tract, with some evidence for a complementary action of endogenous cellulases. Terrestrial isopods have evolved a lifestyle including feeding on a lignocellulose diet. Whether isopods utilize both external and internal cellulases for digestion of a diet is still not understood. We experimentally manipulated the content of cellulose (30%, 60%, or 90%) and the amount of biofilm (small or large) in the offered food source and quantified growth and cellulolytic activity in the gut of the isopod Porcellio scaber. The presence of a visible biofilm significantly promoted isopod growth, regardless of the cellulose content in the diet. The activity of gut cellulases was not significantly affected by the amount of biofilm or the cellulose content. Our results do not support a significant contribution of either ingested or host enzymes to cellulose utilization in P. scaber. Cellulose might not represent a key nutrient for isopods and does not seem to affect the nutritional value of the diet-associated biofilm. We propose that it is the biofilm community that determines the quality of plant diet in terrestrial isopods and potentially also in other detrital plant feeders.