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The impact of microplastics on tissue-specific gene expression in the tropical house cricket, Gryllodes sigillatus
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Researchers fed microplastics to tropical house crickets and measured gene expression changes across four different tissue types. They found that microplastic consumption triggered unique responses in each tissue, with notable changes in genes related to stress, immunity, metabolism, and even cancer pathways. The study demonstrates that microplastic exposure affects different organs in distinct ways, highlighting the complexity of how plastic pollution impacts living organisms.
Microplastics are ubiquitous in our environment, resulting in animal exposure and consumption via food, water, and air. Animals that consume microplastics may suffer from physiological effects like immunotoxicity or mitochondrial dysfunction, but how specific tissues may differentially respond to plastic consumption is poorly understood, particularly in terrestrial insects. Here, we measured transcriptomic responses of tissues (midgut, hindgut, fat body and ovaries) to microplastic consumption in a generalist ground-dwelling insect, the tropical house cricket, Gryllodes sigillatus. Using this approach, we provide insights on how microplastics may impact specific organ systems. We generated a de novo transcriptome, a useful resource for further studies on this emerging model insect, that we then used to infer differential gene expression due to microplastic consumption in individual organs. Ingestion of microplastics elicited unique changes in gene expression depending on the tissue of focus, with notable differentially-expressed genes related to survival and stress pathways as well as those related to metabolism, immunity, and cancer.
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The Impact of Microplastics on Tissue-specific Gene Expression in the Tropical House Cricket, G. sigillatus
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Researchers examined tissue-specific gene expression responses in tropical house crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) fed microplastics, using RNA sequencing across midgut, hindgut, fat body, and ovary tissues to reveal impacts on immune function and mitochondrial activity.
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Researchers fed field crickets nylon microfilaments at different temperatures to assess how warming and microplastic exposure interact, finding that while warmer animals ate more, they did not absorb more microplastics, but microplastic consumption shifted resource allocation toward self-maintenance at the expense of desiccation tolerance and reproduction.
Polyethylene microbeads induce transcriptional responses with tissue-dependent patterns in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis
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Researchers exposed fish to polyethylene microbeads and measured gene expression across tissues, finding tissue-dependent transcriptional responses that suggest microplastic ingestion affects multiple physiological systems in distinct ways.
The digestive system of a cricket pulverizes polyethylene microplastics down to the nanoplastic scale
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This study found that crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) physically ground ingested polyethylene microplastics down to nanoplastic-scale particles through their digestive processes, a finding with implications for how insects contribute to nanoplastic generation and dispersal in terrestrial ecosystems.
Developmental Effects of Microplastic Ingestion on the Tropical House Cricket Gryllodes sigillatus
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Researchers fed crickets diets containing different concentrations of polyethylene microbeads and polyester microfibers, finding that both types reduced body weight gain and development compared to controls. This is one of the few studies on microplastic effects on terrestrial insects, which are important for food webs, pollination, and nutrient cycling.
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