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Microplastic-antibiotic Complex Pollutants on Intestinal Microbial Community Structure of Zebrafish
Summary
Tiny plastic particles in water can soak up antibiotics like a sponge, essentially hitching a ride into the guts of fish and disrupting their natural balance of gut bacteria. This matters because it shows microplastics aren't just passive pollution—they can act as delivery vehicles for other harmful chemicals, and since fish are part of our food chain and share similar gut biology to humans, this raises real questions about what combined pollution might be doing to our own health.
This study investigated the adsorption of chloramphenicol by microplastics in water and examined the effects of the combined pollutant on zebrafish gut microbiota using high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing. The results demonstrated that the equilibrium adsorption capacity of chloramphenicol by microplastics was 2.27 mg/g, consistent with a quasi-first-order kinetic model, while the saturated adsorption capacity was 14.60 mg/g, aligning with the Langmuir adsorption model. Gut microbiota analysis revealed that in the experimental group exposed to the microplastic-antibiotic composite pollutant, the abundance of Bacteroidota and Firmicutes increased progressively, whereas the abundance of Proteobacteria and Fusobacteriota showed minimal changes. Additionally, microbial beta-diversity was significantly reduced. This study confirms that microplastics can act as carriers of chloramphenicol, enter aquatic organisms, and alter the structure of the intestinal microbial community.