Fungal community dynamics in vermicomposting systems: A metagenomic analysis.

The results indicated the highest species diversity in vermicompost, with a Shannon diversity index (D index) of 5.2645, encompassing a total of 55 fungal species. In contrast, the gut of Perionyx sp. 1 and the vermicomposting liquid exhibited a D index of 4.4563 (50 fungal species) and 2.3183 (24 fungal species), respectively. In terms of evenness, vermicompost achieved the highest score, with an evenness index (E index) of 0.9456. The Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) diagram revealed overlapping fungal species among the three samples within the vermicomposting system, represented by PC1 and PC2, accounting for 75.07% and 15.14% of the variance, respectively. The analysis showed that the gut of Perionyx sp. 1 and vermicompost shared 25 species, while there were 9 shared species between the gut and the vermicomposting liquid. Conversely, the vermicompost and vermicomposting liquid exhibited only 7 common species. The overall similarity among the three samples in the vermicomposting system was limited to 4 fungal species: Aspergillus flavus, A. penicillioides, Candida tropicalis, and Nigrospora oryzae. Notably, C. tropicalis demonstrated the highest percentage of species richness, comprising 28.41%, while N. oryzae achieved the best scores in both vermicompost (0.31%) and vermicomposting liquid (3.43%).