Earthworms as plug flow reactors: An enzyme deactivation kinetic study along the gut of the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae

Abstract

Several researchers have modeled animal's guts as reactors, although not many discuss earthworm specifically. The present study applies plug flow reactor (PFR) based enzyme deactivation kinetic model by using three deactivation rates (β), i.e., 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 to predict the changes in proteolytic activity, profile of crude protein and amino acids at five distinct sections, i.e., pre-intestine, foregut, midgut A, midgut B, and Hindgut along the gut of the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae. At three rates of deactivation, three different range of reduction in proteolytic activity was predicted, i.e., (i) 52.28% decrease when β-value was set at 0.05, (ii) 77.23% decrease when β-value was set at 0.1, and (iii) 93.03% decrease when β-value was set at 0.15. In the case of crude protein, the concentration decreased along the gut for all the three β-values at the level of 31.21%, 49.28% and 66.90%, when β value was set at 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 respectively. The effect of deactivation on amino acids also revealed a pattern steady decrease, i.e., 93.83%, 96.85% and 98.87% decrease when β was set at 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15.