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Size-dependent effect of microplastics on sulfamethoxazole degraders in soil as revealed by integration of SIP and metagenomics
Summary
Researchers used DNA stable isotope probing combined with metagenomics and Raman-activated cell sorting to identify microbes that degrade the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole in soils containing polyethylene microplastics, finding that large-sized MPs (4.5 mm) enhanced degradation by improving soil conditions and microbial diversity, while small MPs (0.1 mm) inhibited it by creating harsher conditions that suppressed degrader populations.
Microbes related to antibiotic degradation in situ in agricultural soil with MPs and their response to different sizes of MPs are ambiguity. This study investigated the microbes participating in antibiotic degradation in soils with 4.5 mm and 0.1 mm MPs by using DNA-SIP with metagenomics, Raman-activated cell sorting (RACS) with sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and polyethylene as the model compound and MPs. The 4.5 mm MPs enhanced SMX degradation by promoting diversity and abundance of degraders benefiting from improved soil properties, relation between degraders and SMX, and bacteria with positive co-occurrence relationship with degraders. The 0.1 mm MPs inhibited SMX degradation by decreasing diversity, abundance of degraders, and intensifying bacteria mutually exclusive with degraders due to harsher soil conditions. Furthermore, DNA-SIP-RACS successfully acquired cells of SIP-identified putative degraders, and directly linked SMX degradation potential with metC1, metF1and luxS1, proving possibility of applying this approach in antibiotic-degrading microbes in soil.