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And where have you been? Backtracking microplastics using ecocorona composition
Summary
Researchers investigated whether the biomolecular ecocorona - a layer of proteins, DNA, and lipids that forms on microplastic surfaces upon environmental exposure - retains a stable fingerprint of the ecosystem where it was deposited, and used this signature to backtrack microplastic origin. The study demonstrated that ecocorona composition reflects the specific environmental conditions where microplastics resided, providing a novel tool for tracing the provenance and transport history of environmental plastic particles.
Upon entering the environment, microplastics are rapidly colonised by exogenous biomolecules, such as protein, DNA, and lipids. These components form a strongly bound layer of biomolecules known as the ecocorona, which, once formed, it is suggested to be permanently fixed to the plastics surface. The composition of biomolecules comprising the ecocorona reflects the environment within which a microplastic resided when the corona was formed. Thus, environmental microplastics carry with them an ecological fingerprint of the ecosystems they have resided in. This study investigated this phenomenon using data independent acquisition proteomics and eDNA to elucidate the ecocorona composition of microplastics, and its permanence using both laboratory-based experiments and environmental samples. Pristine and bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein coated polyamide (PA) fibres (n=3), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fragments (n=3) and PET fibres (n=3) were incubated in a single species (Penaeus monodon) marine tank for 48hr to develop an ecocorona. Concurrent water samples were collected from the tank during incubation for protein (n=3) and eDNA (n=5) analysis. Samples were analysed using existing methods. P. monodon proteins and eDNA were both successfully detected on the surface of incubated plastics and from the water samples. The ability to back track the movements of microplastics using the ecocorona was further investigated using plastic biobeads, which were accidentally realised into the marine environment from the waste sump of an aquaculture facility, in Queensland, Australia. Biobeads were recovered from the beach over the next week by the public. Protein and eDNA was extracted and identified from beads exposed to the aquaculture waste sump for 24hours, and beads collected from the beach 7 days after the spill and compared to pristine beads. Overall, using 'omics techniques to quantify ecocorona composition can provide meaningful data on the environment within which microplastics have resided. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/546410/document