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Microplastic risk assessment and toxicity in plants: a review
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Researchers review how microplastics harm plants across multiple mechanisms — inhibiting growth, inducing oxidative stress, blocking nutrient and metal absorption, and disrupting plant-microbe interactions — with consequences for metabolic pathways, gene expression, and crop yields.
Microplastics have recently emerged as major pollutants widely occurring in the atmosphere, seawater, and soils. Microplastic toxicity in plants results in economic losses from declining crop yields. Here, we review microplastic toxicity in plants with emphasis on plant growth and development, oxidative stress, hindering nutrient absorption, metal absorption, physical plant damage, toxicity mechanisms, and synergy with other stressors. We discuss consequences on metabolic pathways, gene expression, and plant–microbe interactions.
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Researchers reviewed accumulating evidence on microplastic uptake by terrestrial plants, finding that particles smaller than 200 nm can enter root cells and translocate to shoots, potentially disrupting photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, and growth while opening a pathway for microplastics to enter the human food chain through crops.
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This analysis examined how microplastics affect plant physiology in terrestrial ecosystems, including uptake through roots, translocation into edible tissues, disruption of photosynthesis, and alteration of soil microbial communities that plants depend on. Because many staple crops can absorb and accumulate microplastics from contaminated soil and irrigation water, agricultural microplastic pollution translates directly into human dietary exposure through fruits, vegetables, and grains.
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Researchers review the emerging evidence on how microplastics accumulate in agricultural soils and affect plant health and development, highlighting that while aquatic impacts are well documented, the effects on terrestrial food crops and soil-plant systems remain poorly understood.
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Researchers reviewed how microplastics accumulate in crops — entering through roots and leaves and reaching edible parts — and found they reduce germination, inhibit photosynthesis, and lower crop yields, raising concerns about plastic contamination in the food we eat.
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Researchers reviewed how microplastics accumulate in plants and disrupt growth, nutrient uptake, and reproduction across both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Because plants form the base of the food chain, microplastic contamination of crops and wild vegetation may indirectly affect the health of animals and humans who consume them.
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