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Novel Insights into Foodborne Microplastics-Enhanced Shoaling Behavior in Marine Korean Rockfish (Sebastes schlegelii) : Energy Deficiency-Driven Gut-Brain Axis Dysregulation
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Researchers fed Korean rockfish microplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations and traced a mechanistic chain from hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction and glucose disruption to systemic energy deficiency, showing that energy-deprived fish increased shoaling behavior as a compensatory strategy while microplastics simultaneously destabilized the gut-brain axis by disrupting neurotransmitter pathways and gut microbiota.
-phenylenediamine-quinone, were primarily responsible for the shoaling enhancement. MPs induced hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis that disrupted glucose homeostasis and caused systemic energy deficiency, thereby promoting shoaling as an energetically compensatory strategy. The energy imbalance subsequently triggered oxidative neurotoxicity and perturbed serotonergic, cholinergic, dopaminergic, and GABAergic pathways. Moreover, MPs disrupted the intestinal physicochemical barrier, immune function, and reshaped microbiota, exacerbating neurotransmitter disruption via the gut-brain axis. These findings demonstrate that environmentally relevant MPs exposure can enhance fish shoaling through energy deficiency-driven gut-brain axis dysregulation, revealing the mechanisms by which MPs stress can reorganize population-level behavior and thereby expand understanding of the ecological risks posed by contaminants of emerging concerns.
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