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Evolutionarily conserved mucus-mediated nanoplastic bioflocculation in Tetrahymena
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Scientists discovered that a tiny single-celled organism called Tetrahymena, common in water environments, can trap and clump together nanoplastics using a mucus-like secretion, pulling nearly half of these particles out of the water and settling them to the bottom instead of letting them float away. This matters because nanoplastics are turning up everywhere—including in our food and water—and this finding suggests nature may already have a built-in way to reduce how far these pollutants spread, which could help scientists better predict and manage plastic pollution risks to ecosystems and, potentially, human exposure.
Nanoplastics (NPs), pervasive environmental pollutants with elevated toxicity and stability, present critical remediation challenges due to the inefficiency of conventional methods. Here, we reveal a protozoan bioflocculation pathway in Tetrahymena that effectively sequesters NPs and fundamentally reshapes their environmental fate. Upon NP exposure, Tetrahymena activates a Ca-dependent mucus secretion mechanism, driving nano-scale aggregation that reduces aqueous NP concentrations by 41.6%-44.8% and enriches sedimentary sinks. Critically, this biotic process mitigates atmospheric dispersion risks, compelling revision of current NP fate models that neglect biological interactions. Multi-omics analyses identify Ca-mediated GRL secretion dynamics associated with this bioflocculation response in Tetrahymena. This mechanism represents a Ca-mediated defensive response observed in Tetrahymena, which may also occur in related species but requires further investigation across other protist taxa. These findings underscore the critical, underappreciated role of protozoa in pollutant mitigation and necessitate updates to global frameworks for projecting NP transport, abundance and ecological risk.
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Interactions between nanoplastics and Tetrahymena thermophila: Low toxicity vs. potential biodegradation
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Researchers investigated how nanoplastics interact with single-celled organisms called ciliates, which are common in freshwater environments. They found that even at high concentrations, the nanoplastics had minimal toxic effects on the ciliates, but the organisms repackaged and expelled the particles in ways that changed their physical properties. The study suggests that microscopic organisms may play an underappreciated role in transforming nanoplastics and influencing their environmental fate.
Combined effects of particle size and humic acid corona on the aggregation kinetics of nanoplastics in aquatic environments
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Researchers examined how humic acid coating and nanoplastic particle size interact to govern aggregation behavior, finding that while humic acid generally inhibits clumping in freshwater, calcium ions cause the coating on larger particles (100–200 nm) to promote aggregation through bridging — a size-dependent mechanism not seen in the smallest 40 nm particles tested.
Perturbation of calcium homeostasis and multixenobiotic resistance by nanoplastics in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila
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The ciliate protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila was exposed to nanoplastics to investigate disruption of calcium homeostasis and multixenobiotic resistance (MXR), a cellular defense mechanism against environmental toxicants. Nanoplastic exposure perturbed calcium signaling and impaired MXR pump activity, revealing molecular mechanisms by which nanoplastics compromise cellular defense in a unicellular eukaryote.
Spatial heterogeneity of EPS-mediated microplastic aggregation in phycosphere shapes polymer-specific Trojan horse effects
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Researchers investigated how algal communities in water aggregate different types of microplastics through sticky extracellular substances they produce. They found that the binding behavior varied significantly by plastic type and by the layer of the algal colony, with some plastics being captured more effectively than others. The study reveals that these natural aggregation processes can concentrate pollutants on microplastic surfaces, creating a "Trojan horse" effect that increases risks to organisms that consume the clumps.
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