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Surface-modified nanoplastics facilitate the dissemination and persistence of antibiotic resistance genes

Journal of Hazardous Materials 2025 Score: 48 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Xiaojie Sun, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Xue Chen, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Jie Ming, Jie Ming, Xiaojie Sun, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Zhiquan Lin, Zhiquan Lin, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yue‐zhong Li, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Shou‐Qing Ni, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Shou‐Qing Ni, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Xiaojie Sun, Bing‐Jie Ni

Summary

Researchers investigated how differently surface-modified nanoplastics (amine-, carboxyl-, and unmodified polystyrene) affect antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) transformation in bacterial cells. Surface-modified nanoplastics, particularly amine-functionalized particles, significantly enhanced ARG transformation efficiency, suggesting that nanoplastic surface chemistry is a key driver of antibiotic resistance spread.

Polymers

Plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance are emerging environmental crises, which pose threat to human and ecology health. Although micro/nano plastics have been found to exacerbate antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) dissemination, the impacts of differentially surface-modified nanoplastics on ARGs transformation remains unclear. In this study, transformation experiments were performed to elucidate the impacts of surface-modified polystyrene (PS) nanoplastics on ARGs transformation. Compared with pristine PS nanoplastics, carboxyl- and amino-modified PS nanoplastics (10 mg/L and 100 mg/L) significantly facilitate the ARG transformation frequency and efficiency. The direct mechanisms were attributed to alternations in cell membrane, including increased cell membrane permeability and pore formation on cell membrane, as well as overproduction of reactive oxygen species, which consequently induced the SOS response. And this was verified by the varied expression levels of related functional genes. Additionally, nanoplastics could inhibit the enzymatic degradation of plasmids, potentially contributing to the persistence of ARGs in environments. These findings suggest that the ecological risks associated with nanoplastics in promoting ARGs dissemination should not be overlooked, since the co-occurrence of ARGs and plastics is pervasive and persistent in diverse habitats.

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