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Toward ecological realism in microplastic toxicology: Intestinal responses to biofilm-colonized microplastics from distinct environmental compartments in fish
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Microplastics that spend time in rivers develop a coating of bacteria and gunk, and this "biofilm" makes them build up more in fish guts and disrupt digestion, gut bacteria, and metabolism, with effects depending on whether the plastic sat in the water or in river sediment. Since fish are a major food source, this suggests real-world, weathered microplastics may pose different health risks than the clean plastics typically tested in labs.
To accurately assess the ecological risks posed by real-world MPs, studies bridging microplastic (MP)-associated biofilms in different environmental compartments and their toxicological consequences are needed. This study investigated 50-week in-situ biofilm development on polyvinyl chloride, polylactic acid, and polyamide 66 (PA66) MPs across the water column and the sediment-water interface (SWI). During colonization in the selected river, the microbial community structures were primarily associated with environmental compartments rather than polymer types. By identifying the highest aging resistance during colonization, PA66 was selected as the model polymer to evaluate the subsequent intestinal toxicity in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Tilapia were exposed to pristine, water-colonized, and SWI-colonized MPs for 14 days, followed by assessments of MP accumulation, gut function biomarkers, 16S gut microbiota profiling, and non-targeted metabolomics. Biofilm colonization increased intestinal MP accumulation by 27.8% (water-colonized) and 24.9% (SWI-colonized) relative to pristine PA66 in the gut, altered digestive enzyme activities, and was associated with compartment-specific gut microbiota dysbiosis and metabolic perturbations. Water-column conditioned MPs were primarily associated with indicators of altered mucosal-related taxa and glycometabolism, whereas SWI conditioning was associated with broader metabolic patterns consistent with oxidative stress and altered nucleotide metabolism. The results suggest that environmental compartment is associated with differences in biofilm-conditioned MP characteristics and biological responses. This study provides novel insights into the compartment-dependent ecological risks of biofilm-colonized MPs and contributes to advancing the paradigm shift toward ecological realism in MP risk assessments.
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Researchers found that microplastics coated with bacterial biofilms (natural microbial layers that form in water) caused more intestinal damage to zebrafish than clean microplastics. The biofilm-coated particles increased pathogenic bacteria in the gut by several times and significantly boosted antibiotic resistance genes. This matters because microplastics in real-world water are almost always coated with biofilms, meaning the actual health risks from waterborne microplastics may be greater than lab studies using clean particles suggest.
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Researchers investigated how microplastics influence nutrient and metal concentrations in river sediments, finding that microplastics alter the distribution of pollutants through their capacity to adsorb contaminants and support biofilm formation on their hydrophobic surfaces.
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