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Uniqueness and Dependence of Bacterial Communities on Microplastics: Comparison with Water, Sediment, and Soil
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Researchers compared bacterial communities on microplastics with those in water, sediment, and soil in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, finding that microplastic-associated communities are unique in composition and ecological function compared to surrounding environments.
Revealing the dependence and uniqueness of microbial communities on microplastics could help us better understand the assembly of the microplastic microbial community in river ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the composition and ecological functions of the bacterial community on microplastics from the Three Gorges Reservoir area compared with those in water, sediment, and soil at species-level via full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that the full-length 16S rRNA sequencing provided more detail and accurate taxa resolution of the bacterial community in microplastics (100%), water (99.90%), sediment (99.95%), and soil (100%). Betaproteobacteriales were the most abundant bacteria in microplastics (14.1%), water (32.3%), sediments (27.2%), and soil (21.0%). Unexpectedly, oligotrophic SAR11 clade was the third abundant bacteria (8.51%) and dominated the ecological functions of the bacterial community in water, but it was less observed on microplastics, with a relative abundance of 2.73×10. However, four opportunistic pathogens identified at the species level were selectively enriched on microplastics. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was the main opportunistic pathogen on microplastics (0.29%). Sediment rather than soil and water may be contributed mostly to pathogens on microplastics. Moreover, some bacteria species with the biodegradation function of microplastics were enriched on microplastics, such as bacteria Rhodobacter sp., and endemic bacteria Luteimonas sp. The distinct bacteria composition on microplastics enhanced several ecological functions, such as xenobiotics biodegradation, which allows screening the bacteria with the biodegradation function of microplastics through long-term exposure.
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Researchers found that geographic dispersal limitation — rather than environmental filtering — was the dominant process shaping bacterial community assembly on microplastics in the Three Gorges Reservoir, distinguishing the 'plastisphere' microbiome from communities in surrounding water and sediment.
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Researchers used high-throughput DNA sequencing to profile bacterial communities colonizing microplastics in the intertidal zone of China's Yangtze Estuary, finding that plastisphere community composition reflected the particles' sedimentary versus aquatic origins and included keystone taxa adapted to surface-colonization as well as potential pathogens hitchhiking on plastic surfaces.
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Comparative surveys of microplastics and associated microbial communities across river, reservoir, and bay environments in the Dongjiang watershed found that MP abundance and microbial community composition differed significantly by water type, with MP surfaces hosting distinct microbial assemblages.
Microplastic is an Abundant and Distinct Microbial Habitat in an Urban River
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Researchers demonstrated that microplastic surfaces in an urban river host a microbial community that is distinct from surrounding water and sediment communities, establishing microplastic as an abundant and ecologically distinct habitat for river microorganisms.
Bacterial community structure of water, sediment and microplastics in Poyang Lake wetland.
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This study compared the bacterial communities living on four types of microplastics (film, foam, fiber, and fragment) in Poyang Lake wetland in China against the bacterial communities in the surrounding water and sediment. The microplastic surfaces hosted distinct microbial communities that differed from both the water and sediment, with foam microplastics supporting the least diverse communities. This "plastisphere" research is important because the unique bacteria colonizing plastic surfaces could spread pathogens or alter nutrient cycles in freshwater wetland ecosystems.
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