Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastics: Disseminators of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogenic bacteria

This review examined the role of microplastics as carriers of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and pathogenic bacteria, analyzing how plastisphere biofilms concentrate and spread AMR through air, water, and soil environments. The evidence supports MPs as global vectors for antimicrobial resistance dissemination with implications for human health.

2025 Aquatic Toxicology
Article Tier 2

Microplastics pollution in the ocean: Potential carrier of resistant bacteria and resistance genes

This review examined microplastics in marine environments as carriers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes, finding that plastic surfaces selectively enrich resistance genes through horizontal gene transfer and co-selection pressure, making ocean microplastics a vector for resistance dissemination across ecosystems.

2021 Environmental Pollution 96 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Their Role in the Maintenance and Spread of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Marine Ecosystems

This review examines the role of microplastics in maintaining and spreading antibiotic resistance genes in marine ecosystems, synthesizing evidence that plastic pollution in aquatic environments creates reservoirs for antimicrobial resistant bacteria and facilitates horizontal gene transfer.

2022 Antibiot Khimioter = Antibiotics and Chemotherapy 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics: Hidden drivers of antimicrobial resistance in aquatic systems

This review examines how microplastics in aquatic environments serve as surfaces for biofilm formation, creating what researchers call the 'plastisphere,' which can harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens. Evidence indicates that microplastics facilitate the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes through water systems, potentially affecting both aquatic organisms and human health. The findings underscore microplastics as an overlooked driver of antibiotic resistance in waterways.

2025 NanoImpact 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Selection for antimicrobial resistance in the plastisphere

This review examines how microplastics in the environment may contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance by providing surfaces where bacteria, antibiotics, and resistant genes converge. Researchers describe several mechanisms by which the microbial communities living on microplastics, known as the plastisphere, could accelerate horizontal gene transfer of resistance traits. The study highlights an emerging concern at the intersection of plastic pollution and the global antimicrobial resistance crisis.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 24 citations
Article Tier 2

How microplastics and nanoplastics shape antibiotic resistance?

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics act as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes, facilitating their spread through environmental and biological systems by creating selective pressure and hosting microbial communities that exchange resistance determinants.

2022 Water Emerging Contaminants & Nanoplastics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic biofilm as hotspots of antibiotic resistance genes and potential pathogens

This review examined how microplastic biofilms—the plastisphere—serve as hotspots for antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) accumulation and potential pathogen enrichment. The authors described mechanisms by which microplastic surfaces promote horizontal gene transfer and bacterial community shifts that favor ARG-carrying strains, raising concern that microplastics accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments.

2025 npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
Article Tier 2

Microplastic-Mediated Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Marine Environments: Mechanisms, Environmental Modulators, and Emerging Risks

This review examines how microplastics serve as vectors for spreading antibiotic resistance genes in marine environments through biofilm formation and horizontal gene transfer. Researchers found that plastic surfaces promote colonization by resistant bacteria, and environmental factors like salinity, UV exposure, and co-occurring heavy metals further accelerate the spread of resistance genes, posing significant ecological and public health risks.

2026 Microplastics
Article Tier 2

Antibiotic resistant bacteria colonising microplastics in the aquatic environment: An emerging challenge

Researchers reviewed how microplastics in aquatic environments act as surfaces where antibiotic-resistant bacteria can grow and swap resistance genes with each other, raising concern that contaminated seafood and water could transfer these hard-to-treat bacteria to humans.

2024 Discover Sustainability 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Alteration of microbial mediated carbon cycle and antibiotic resistance genes during plastisphere formation in coastal area

Researchers investigated how microplastic surfaces in coastal environments develop biofilm communities, known as the plastisphere, and whether these biofilms enrich antibiotic resistance genes. The study found that incubation time, habitat type, and microplastic aging state all significantly influenced biofilm composition, and that aged microplastics accumulated more antibiotic resistance genes than new ones, suggesting microplastics may serve as vectors for spreading resistant bacteria.

2023 Chemosphere 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastisphere as a Vector for Pathogenic Microbes and Antibiotic Resistance

This review examines how the plastisphere, the microbial community that colonizes plastic surfaces, serves as a vector for pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. Researchers found that microplastics can adsorb antibiotics and facilitate higher rates of plasmid transfer among bacteria, with potentially pathogenic species carrying multi-drug resistance genes identified on plastic surfaces.

2025 1 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

The Plastisphere Resistome: A Systematic Review of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Resistant Bacteria on Microplastics

This systematic review examines whether microplastic-associated biofilms harbor higher levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria compared to surrounding environments. If microplastics act as hotspots for antibiotic resistance genes, they could spread drug-resistant bacteria through water systems, posing a serious concern for human health and the effectiveness of antibiotics.

2026 Open Science Framework
Article Tier 2

The Impact of Microplastics on Antibiotic Resistance Genes

This review analyzed the distribution, migration, and transfer pathways of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in relation to microplastics in environmental systems. Microplastics serve as substrates for ARG-carrying biofilms (plastispheres), facilitating the spread of antibiotic resistance across ecosystems.

2025 Theoretical and Natural Science
Article Tier 2

Hidden threats in the plastisphere: Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales colonizing microplastics in river water

Researchers placed microplastics in a river near a wastewater treatment plant and found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous carbapenem-resistant strains, colonized the plastic surfaces. These bacteria carried multiple drug-resistance genes and virulence traits, making them potential threats to human health. The study demonstrates that microplastics in waterways can serve as floating platforms that help spread antibiotic-resistant superbugs from wastewater into the broader environment.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Marine plastisphere selectively enriches microbial assemblages and antibiotic resistance genes during long-term cultivation periods

Researchers placed four types of common microplastics in a marine environment for over 100 days and found that bacterial communities and antibiotic resistance genes accumulated on the plastic surfaces over time. PVC microplastics were particularly effective at concentrating resistance genes, and a key gene-transfer element was found on all plastic types. These results show that microplastics floating in the ocean act as hotspots for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which could eventually reach humans through seafood or water.

2024 Environmental Pollution 15 citations
Article Tier 2

A review focusing on mechanisms and ecological risks of enrichment and propagation of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements by microplastic biofilms

This review examines how microplastics in water serve as surfaces for bacterial biofilms that harbor antibiotic resistance genes. The biofilms that form on microplastic surfaces can spread resistance genes to other bacteria and potentially to organisms that ingest them, including fish and ultimately humans. The authors highlight that microplastic-associated antibiotic resistance is an underappreciated public health risk that needs more research.

2024 Environmental Research 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastisphere antibiotic resistance genes: A bird's-eye view on the plastic-specific diversity and enrichment

Microplastics in the environment act as surfaces for microbial communities called microplastispheres, which this review finds are enriched with antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The type of plastic, surrounding water chemistry, and co-occurring pollutants all influence which resistance genes accumulate, raising concern that microplastics could be spreading antibiotic resistance through aquatic environments worldwide.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 11 citations
Article Tier 2

[Research progress on the effect of estuary microplastics on antibiotic resistance genes].

This review summarizes research on how microplastics in estuarine environments influence the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), focusing on the role of biofilms that form on plastic surfaces. Microplastic biofilms selectively enrich ARG-carrying bacteria and facilitate horizontal gene transfer, increasing the risk of antibiotic resistance dissemination in ecologically and humanly important estuarine zones.

2024 PubMed
Article Tier 2

Biofilm formation on microplastics and interactions with antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes and pathogens in aquatic environment

This review explains how microplastics in waterways develop bacterial biofilms on their surfaces that can harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria and help spread antibiotic resistance genes to new environments. This is concerning for human health because these resistant microbes could eventually reach people through drinking water or seafood consumption.

2024 Eco-Environment & Health 63 citations
Article Tier 2

Selective enrichment of antibiotic resistome and bacterial pathogens by aquatic microplastics

This review found that microplastics in aquatic environments selectively enrich antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resistance genes, and bacterial pathogens in their biofilms, making plastic debris a potential vector for spreading antimicrobial resistance.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 27 citations
Article Tier 2

A review on the effect of micro- and nano-plastics pollution on the emergence of antimicrobial resistance

This review highlights how microplastics serve as breeding grounds for antimicrobial resistance genes, examining the overlooked interaction between plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance that poses combined threats to environmental and human health.

2022 Chemosphere 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Antibiotic resistance in plastisphere

Researchers reviewed antibiotic resistance in the plastisphere — the microbial community colonizing plastic surfaces in aquatic environments — finding that plastic properties and aging influence the enrichment and horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes, and that aged microplastics pose elevated risks due to increased adsorption of resistant bacteria.

2024 Journal of environmental chemical engineering 5 citations
Article Tier 2

The nexus of microplastics, food and antimicrobial resistance in the context of aquatic environment: Interdisciplinary linkages of pathways

This review examines how microplastics in aquatic environments serve as surfaces where bacteria can grow, share antibiotic resistance genes, and then enter the food chain through contaminated seafood. The combination of microplastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance creates a compounding threat, as resistant bacteria riding on plastic particles can survive water treatment and reach humans. The authors call for interdisciplinary research connecting environmental science and public health to address this growing risk.

2025 Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic-associated pathogens and antimicrobial resistance in environment

This review examines how microplastics in the environment act as surfaces for disease-causing bacteria and antibiotic-resistant microbes to colonize and spread. Researchers found that microplastics can carry pathogens and facilitate the transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes between bacteria in water systems. The findings raise concerns that microplastic pollution may be contributing to the growing global challenge of antibiotic resistance.

2021 Chemosphere 175 citations