Abstract: Earthworm intestinal microorganisms play key roles in achieving ecological functions of earthworms, such as nitrogen fixing and phosphorus solubilizing, plant growth promoting, soil pollution indicating, pollutants degrading. Increasing human activities have resulted in accumulation of various pollutants in soils, including exogenous heavy metals, antibiotics, pesticides, and microplastics. These pollutants enter the intestinal tract and interact with microorganisms after being ingested by earthworms. On the one hand, soil pollutants affect the composition and activity of intestinal community in earthworms by changing soil environment and earthworms’ intestine. On the other hand, intestinal microorganisms in earthworms can eliminate soil pollutants through microbial degradation, biological enrichment, adsorption, and transformation. We reviewed the interaction effect and response mechanism between intestinal microorganisms in earthworms and soil pollutants from two aspects: (1) the changes of intestinal microorganisms under pollutant stress and the removal of pollutants by intestinal microorganisms. (2) the current application of multiomics analysis techniques in removal of environmental pollutants by earthworm intestinal microbiota. It is expected to clarify the ecological function of intestinal microorganisms of earthworms and provide insights on the roles of earthworms in eliminating soil pollution for sustainable agriculture development.

Key words: soil, earthworm, intestinal microorganism, pollutant, removal, stress