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Contribution of microplastic particles to the spread of resistances and pathogenic bacteria in treated wastewaters
Water Research2021
140 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 50
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Diego Fontaneto,
Andrea Di Cesare,
María Belén Sathicq,
María Belén Sathicq,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Silvia Galafassi,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Silvia Galafassi,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Ester M. Eckert,
Gianluca Corno,
María Belén Sathicq,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Silvia Galafassi,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Silvia Galafassi,
María Belén Sathicq,
Pietro Volta
Pietro Volta
Andrea Di Cesare,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Diego Fontaneto,
Pietro Volta
Pietro Volta
Andrea Di Cesare,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Silvia Galafassi,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
María Belén Sathicq,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Gianluca Corno,
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Ester M. Eckert,
Silvia Galafassi,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Silvia Galafassi,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Ester M. Eckert,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Diego Fontaneto,
Diego Fontaneto,
Diego Fontaneto,
Diego Fontaneto,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Sabatino,
Pietro Volta
Pietro Volta
Diego Fontaneto,
Silvia Galafassi,
Pietro Volta
Raffaella Sabatino,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Gianluca Corno,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Gianluca Corno,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Gianluca Corno,
Gianluca Corno,
Pietro Volta
Pietro Volta
Gianluca Corno,
Pietro Volta
Pietro Volta
Raffaella Mossotti,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Giulia Dalla Fontana,
Pietro Volta
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Gianluca Corno,
Pietro Volta
Gianluca Corno,
Andrea Di Cesare,
Raffaella Mossotti,
Pietro Volta
Silvia Galafassi,
Silvia Galafassi,
Diego Fontaneto,
Pietro Volta
Summary
Researchers studied microplastic particles collected from treated wastewater effluents and found that MPs harbored significantly higher loads of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogenic bacteria compared to surrounding water, suggesting MPs facilitate their environmental spread.
Study Type
Environmental
Microplastic Particles (MPs) are ubiquitous pollutants widely found in aquatic ecosystems. Although MPs are mostly retained in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), a high number of MPs reaches the open waters potentially contributing to the spread of pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in the environment. Nowadays, a limited number of studies have focused on the role of MPs as carriers of potentially pathogenic and antibiotic resistant bacteria in WWTPs. Thus, an investigation on the community composition (by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing) and the abundance of antibiotic and metal resistance genes (by qPCR) of the biofilm on MPs (the plastisphere) and of planktonic bacteria in treated (pre- and post-disinfection) wastewaters was performed. MPs resulted to be very similar in terms of type, color, size, and chemical composition, before and after the disinfection. The bacterial community on MPs differed from the planktonic community in terms of richness, composition, and structure of the community network. Potentially pathogenic bacteria generally showed higher abundances in treated wastewater than in the biofilm on MPs. Furthermore, among the tested resistance genes, only sul2 (a common resistance gene against sulfonamides) resulted to be more abundant in the plastisphere than in the planktonic bacterial community. Our results suggest that the wastewater plastisphere could promote the spread of pathogenic bacteria and resistance genes in aquatic environment although with a relatively lower contribution than the wastewater planktonic bacterial community.