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The impacts of microplastics on zebrafish behavior depend on initial personality state
Summary
Researchers found that microplastic exposure altered zebrafish behavior, including boldness, anxiety, and sociability, but that individual personality traits played a major role in how each fish responded. Fish exposed to environmentally realistic concentrations of polyethylene microplastics also showed significant changes in their gut microbiome. The study suggests that personality variation should be considered in toxicology research, as it can explain much of the variability in how organisms respond to pollutants.
Microplastic pollution is associated with inflammation, gut dysbiosis and behavioral changes in fish. Fish have distinct personality traits but the role of personality in behavioral toxicology is rarely considered. We classified zebrafish on four behavioral axes: boldness, anxiety, sociability and exploration tendency then exposed them to low- or high- concentrations of two types of polyethylene microplastics (low- and high-density) for 28 days. Behaviors, antioxidant enzymes (catalase and superoxide dismutase), and gut microbiome were then measured. There were direct effects of microplastics on boldness, anxiety and sociability. However, fish retained their initial behavioral tendencies. Exposure to all microplastic treatments reduced average swimming speed and decreased the time spent motionless. Microplastic exposure did not affect antioxidant enzymes but did cause significant changes in the composition of the gut microbiome. This study demonstrates that environmentally realistic concentrations of microplastics can alter fish behavior, but much of the variance in response can be explained by personality.