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Growth reduction of- and interactions with nanoplastic particles in a soil bacterium and a soil fungus
Summary
Researchers found that nanosized polystyrene particles reduced the growth and enzymatic activity of both a soil bacterium (Pseudomonas) and a soil fungus (Coprinopsis), and that fungal hyphae strongly attracted nanoplastic beads, potentially concentrating them in specific soil pore spaces.
Micro- and Nanoplastics have become a very common pollutant of soil ecosystems, but their effect on soil microorganisms is not well understood. We exposed a model soil bacterium (Pseudomonas) and a model soil fungus (Coprinopsis) to different concentrations of nanosized polystyrene beads in microfluidic soil chips. The transparent chips allowed us to perform direct investigation of the effect of beads on abundance of the microbes and on interactions of individual cells with the nanobeads. Growth of both the bacteria and the fungi was reduced by the exposure to nanoplastics, along with a reduction in bacterial enzymatic activity. Nanobeads were strongly attracted to fungal hyphae, causing a high concentration of beads along the first hyphae to enter a pore space, and thus freeing the surrounding from a large proportion of the beads. This study contributes to our understanding of direct toxicity effects and interactions of nanoplastics to soil microbes.
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