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Spatial structure in the “Plastisphere”: Molecular resources for imaging microscopic communities on plastic marine debris
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Researchers developed a CLASI-FISH confocal microscopy method using seven fluorophore-labelled phylogenetic probes to simultaneously visualise and identify microbial communities living on plastic marine debris in the 'Plastisphere.' The nested probe strategy targeting Bacteroidetes, Vibrionaceae, Rhodobacteraceae, and Alteromonadaceae was validated in pure cultures and applied to polyethylene biofilm colonisation experiments across three biogeographical regions.
Abstract Plastic marine debris (PMD) affects spatial scales of life from microbes to whales. However, understanding interactions between plastic and microbes in the “Plastisphere”—the thin layer of life on the surface of PMD—has been technology‐limited. Research into microbe–microbe and microbe–substrate interactions requires knowledge of community phylogenetic composition but also tools to visualize spatial distributions of intact microbial biofilm communities. We developed a CLASI‐FISH (combinatorial labelling and spectral imaging – fluorescence in situ hybridization) method using confocal microscopy to study Plastisphere communities. We created a probe set consisting of three existing phylogenetic probes (targeting all Bacteria, Alpha ‐, and Gammaproteobacteria ) and four newly designed probes (targeting Bacteroidetes , Vibrionaceae , Rhodobacteraceae and Alteromonadaceae ) labelled with a total of seven fluorophores and validated this probe set using pure cultures. Our nested probe set strategy increases confidence in taxonomic identification because targets are confirmed with two or more probes, reducing false positives. We simultaneously identified and visualized these taxa and their spatial distribution within the microbial biofilms on polyethylene samples in colonization time series experiments in coastal environments from three different biogeographical regions. Comparing the relative abundance of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing data with cell‐count abundance data retrieved from the microscope images of the same samples showed a good agreement in bacterial composition. Microbial communities were heterogeneous, with direct spatial relationships between bacteria, cyanobacteria and eukaryotes such as diatoms but also micro‐metazoa. Our research provides a valuable resource to investigate biofilm development, succession and associations between specific microscopic taxa at micrometre scales.
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Researchers investigated how microbial communities colonize different types of microplastic surfaces in natural marine environments over an eight-week period. They found that the composition of these plastic-associated microbial communities, known as the plastisphere, was shaped more by environmental conditions and time than by the specific type of plastic. The study provides new understanding of the ecological processes governing how microorganisms assemble on ocean plastic debris.
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Researchers characterized prokaryotic and eukaryotic plastisphere communities on microplastics from four lakes in Italy using 16S and 18S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization with confocal laser scanning microscopy. Despite geographic variation among sites, plastisphere communities shared a core microbiome of known biofilm formers that was compositionally distinct from surrounding planktonic communities.
An In Situ Study to Understand Community Structure of Estuarine Microbes on the Plastisphere
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Researchers performed 16S rRNA sequencing on biofilms from three microplastic polymer types and glass bead controls deployed in Baltimore Inner Harbor over 28 days, finding that plastisphere communities were taxonomically distinct from free-living microbial communities but that polymer type did not significantly differentiate community composition, with Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, and sulfate-reducing bacteria among the notable colonizers.
Microplastics as a New Ecological Niche For Multispecies Microbial Biofilms within the Plastisphere
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This review examines microplastics as a novel ecological niche — the 'plastisphere' — analyzing how multispecies microbial biofilms colonize plastic surfaces, differ from surrounding environmental communities, and may facilitate biodegradation and horizontal gene transfer.
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