Papers

Biodegradability standards for carrier bags and plastic films in aquatic environments: a critical review

Researchers critically reviewed existing biodegradability standards for carrier bags and plastic films in aquatic environments and found that current testing protocols do not adequately reflect real-world marine or freshwater conditions. The study suggests that labeling plastics as "biodegradable" may be misleading, since degradation rates vary dramatically depending on temperature, oxygen levels, and microbial communities present in natural water bodies.

In vitro models of gut digestion across childhood: current developments, challenges and future trends

Researchers review the development of in vitro gut digestion models for children from birth to age three, summarizing how gut anatomy, physiology, and microbiota evolve during this period and how existing static and dynamic model systems can simulate these compartments to study nutrition, drug delivery, and environmental contaminant exposure.

Plastics in the North Atlantic garbage patch: A boat-microbe for hitchhikers and plastic degraders

Researchers examined the microbial communities living on plastic debris in the North Atlantic garbage patch, finding that plastics host unique communities of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes distinct from surrounding seawater. The study highlights that floating plastics act as "microbial islands" that could facilitate the long-distance transport of potentially invasive or pathogenic organisms.

Effects of Kraft lignin and corn cob agro-residue on the properties of injected-moulded biocomposites

Deciphering amino acid adsorption on PVC surface: insights from molecular dynamics and PMF calculations

Molecular dynamics simulations were used to model how individual amino acids adsorb onto PVC plastic surfaces, providing atomic-level insight into how proteins and biological molecules interact with a ubiquitous plastic pollutant. Understanding these interactions is relevant to assessing how microplastics may alter the behavior of biomolecules once ingested by organisms, with implications for understanding the biological effects of plastic exposure.

Untargeted metabolomic insights into plastisphere communities in European rivers

Researchers used untargeted metabolomics to characterize plastisphere microbial communities colonizing polyethylene-based plastic pellets in European rivers, simulating microplastic transport between freshwater and marine ecosystems to understand how the plastisphere microbiome and its metabolic outputs shift across environmental transitions.

Temporal covariation of epibacterial community and surface metabolome in the Mediterranean seaweed holobiont <scp> <i>Taonia atomaria</i> </scp>

This study tracked how the microbial community and chemical compounds on the surface of a Mediterranean seaweed changed across seasons over a year. While focused on seaweed biology, the findings are relevant to understanding how natural organic matter interacts with marine microplastics.