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Coping with synthetic and natural microparticles: brown shrimp and antioxidant defence
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This doctoral research investigated how brown shrimp respond to both synthetic microplastics and natural organic microparticles, focusing on antioxidant defense mechanisms. The study aims to understand why some marine species appear more vulnerable to microplastic ingestion than others.
Industrialization and unconscious consumerism introduced plastic into our every day’s life. Due to poor recycling strategies, synthetic material is now one of the greatest challengers in the marine environment. Under suitable environmental conditions, plastic is prone to degrade further into microplastics. The wide size range make the microplastics available to different marine fauna. Apart from the synthetic microparticles, marine organisms are in their habitat persistently surrounded by various suspended organic microparticles (remains of bivalves, cellulose fibers, chitinous remains) and inorganic microparticles (silica frustules, sediment grains). The goal of this doctoral project is to determine the differences in antioxidant defense of specimen, subjected to the microparticles of different origin. To investigate this issue, the brown shrimp were exposed to 20 mg L-1 of natural (clay, diatoms) and synthetic (TiO2, PVC, PLA) microparticles. Incubation lasted for 6, 12, 24 and 48 h, until the shrimp were dissected, and the midgut gland was withdrawn. Analyses of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and reductase followed. Additionally, antioxidant potential was measured. The preliminary results show that the microparticle origin was not detrimental for the cellular stress in the brown shrimp, but the exposure time. Early findings suggest, C. crangon better copes with microplastic pollution then others marine organisms. Similar exposure experiments with crustaceans of other habitual or feeding traits would be advised, to better understand the high stress resistance towards microplastic pollution in the brown shrimp.
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