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Hydrophobins from Aspergillus mediate fungal interactions with microplastics
Summary
Researchers discovered that the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and related species can tightly bind to microplastic particles, with up to 3.85 grams of plastic bound per gram of fungi. They identified hydrophobin proteins on the fungal surface as the key molecules mediating this attachment to plastics. The findings suggest that microplastics may serve as vectors for pathogenic fungi in food chains, raising concerns about how plastic pollution could facilitate the spread of opportunistic infections.
Microplastics present myriad ecological and human health risks including serving as a vector for pathogens in human and animal food chains. However, the specific mechanisms by which pathogenic fungi colonize these microplastics have yet to be explored. In this work, we examine the opportunistic fungal pathogen, Aspergillus fumigatus, and other common soil and marine Aspergilli, which we found bind microplastics tightly. Up to 3.85+/- 1.48 g microplastic plastic/g fungi were bound and flocculated for polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) powders and particles ranging in size from 0.05 - 5 mm. Gene knockouts revealed hydrophobins as a key biomolecule driving microplastic-fungi binding. Moreover, purified hydrophobins were still able to flocculate microplastics independent of the fungus. Our work elucidates a role for hydrophobins in fungal colonization of microplastics and highlights a potential target for mitigating the harm of microplastics through engineered fungal-microplastic interactions.