Papers

Microplastics in the insular marine environment of the Southwest Indian Ocean carry a microbiome including antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria: A case study from Reunion Island

Researchers studied the microbial communities growing on microplastics collected from the waters around Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. They found that these plastic-associated microbiomes included bacteria carrying antimicrobial resistance genes, which differ from what is typically found in the surrounding seawater. The findings highlight that ocean microplastics can serve as floating platforms for potentially harmful, drug-resistant microbes even in remote island environments.