Anticancer, antimicrobial, and probiotic properties of bacterial strains derived from edible snails Cornu aspersum and Eobania vermiculata gut microbiota

Abstract Background Land snails, a diverse and ecologically important group under the class Gastropoda, possess unique gut microbial communities that are crucial to their physiology, ecology, and environmental interactions. To explore the intestinal microbiota of land snails, Cornu aspersum (C. aspersum) and Eobania vermiculata (E. vermiculata) were obtained from their natural habitat in agricultural environments and investigated in this study. Results The results demonstrated that the phyla Pseudomonadota, Bacteroidota, and Actinomycetota dominated land snails’ guts, comprising 82–96%, 13.7–3.5%, and 2–0.5% of the total relative abundance in C. aspersum and E. vermiculata, respectively. Through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, two bacterial strains were isolated from land snails’ gut microbiota and identified as Staphylococcus xylosus (S. xylosus) and Enterococcus hirae (E. hirae). The two bacterial strains exhibited probiotic properties such as persistence in acidic pH (2.5) and bile salts (0.7% and 0.3%) and demonstrated antibacterial properties against pathogenic bacteria. In addition, both isolated bacterial strains demonstrated anticancer activity against Caco-2 cells. The production of exopolysaccharide (EPS) from the isolated bacteria was quantified, showing higher quantities produced by E. hirae. Conclusions This investigation demonstrated the intestinal microbiota biodiversity of terrestrial snails C. aspersum and E. vermiculata and their use as a niche source for beneficial bacteria. Graphical abstract