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Microbiology combined with metabonomics revealing the response of soil microorganisms and their metabolic functions exposed to phthalic acid esters
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Researchers examined how common plastic plasticizers (phthalic acid esters) affect soil microorganisms and their metabolic functions using genomic sequencing and metabolomics. They found that while plasticizers did not significantly change bacterial diversity in the short term, they altered community structure and disrupted metabolic pathways, with dibutyl phthalate affecting 172 metabolites and 43 metabolic pathways. The study also identified certain soil bacteria with potential to degrade these plasticizer compounds.
As microplastics became the focus of global attention, the hazards of plastic plasticizers (PAEs) have gradually attracted people's attention. Agricultural soil is one of its hardest hit areas. However, current research of its impact on soil ecology only stops at the microorganism itself, and there is still lack of conclusion on the impact of soil metabolism. To this end, three most common PAEs (Dimethyl phthalate: DMP, Dibutyl phthalate: DBP and Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate: DEHP) were selected and based on high-throughput sequencing and metabolomics platforms, the influence of PAEs residues on soil metabolic functions were revealed for the first time. PAEs did not significantly changed the alpha diversity of soil bacteria in the short term, but changed their community structure and interfered with the complexity of community symbiosis network. Metabolomics indicated that exposure to DBP can significantly change the soil metabolite profile. A total of 172 differential metabolites were found, of which 100 were up-regulated and 72 were down-regulated. DBP treatment interfered with 43 metabolic pathways including basic metabolic processes. In particular, it interfered with the metabolism of residual steroids and promoted the metabolism of various plasticizers. In addition, through differential labeling and collinear analysis, some bacteria with the degradation potential of PAEs, such as Gordonia, were excavated.
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