Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastic particles alter wheat rhizosphere soil microbial community composition and function

Researchers found that microplastic particles altered wheat rhizosphere soil microbial community composition and function, with different polymer types inducing distinct shifts in bacterial diversity and nutrient cycling processes.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 139 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in soil–plant systems: impacts on soil health, plant toxicity, and multiomics insights

This review synthesizes current knowledge on how microplastics affect soil health and plant growth in agricultural systems, with insights from advanced omics technologies. Researchers found that microplastics degrade soil structure, disrupt nutrient cycles, alter microbial communities, and can be taken up by plant roots, triggering oxidative stress and impaired growth. The study highlights how transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics are revealing the molecular-level stress responses plants mount against microplastic exposure.

2025 Plant Cell Reports 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Nanoplastic Contamination on Rhizosphere Microbiome and Plant Phenotype

This study examined how nanoplastic contamination affects the rhizosphere microbiome (soil bacteria around plant roots) and plant growth. Nanoplastic exposure altered soil microbial communities and reduced plant growth, suggesting these tiny plastic particles could disrupt the soil ecosystems that support food production.

2023
Article Tier 2

The effects of Micro/Nano-plastics exposure on plants and their toxic mechanisms: A review from multi-omics perspectives.

A multi-omics review of micro/nanoplastic effects on plants found that plastic exposure disrupts gene expression, protein function, and metabolic pathways across multiple plant systems, with potential consequences for crop yield and agricultural food safety.

2024 Journal of hazardous materials
Article Tier 2

[Effects of Microplastics on the Growth, Physiology, and Biochemical Characteristics of Wheat (Triticum aestivum)].

Wheat seedlings were grown in soils spiked with 100 nm and 5 μm polystyrene microplastics, with high concentrations (200 mg/L) significantly inhibiting root and stem elongation, reducing chlorophyll, and altering antioxidant enzyme activity, with smaller nanoplastics showing greater toxicity. The findings demonstrate that microplastic size influences phytotoxicity in a major agricultural crop.

2019 PubMed 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of nanoplastics uptake on modulation of plant metabolism and stress responses: a multi-omics perspective on remediation and tolerance mechanisms

Researchers reviewed how nanoplastics accumulate in plant tissues and disrupt metabolism, finding that these particles impair nutrient uptake, trigger reactive oxygen species overproduction, and alter gene and protein expression, while multi-omics approaches are revealing the molecular stress-response networks that plants use to tolerate or remediate nanoplastic contamination.

2026 Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants
Article Tier 2

The Role of Omics Technology in Evaluating Plastic Pollution’s Effects on Plants: A Comprehensive Review

This comprehensive review examines how omics technologies (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics) are being applied to understand the molecular mechanisms by which micro- and nanoplastics damage plants, including oxidative stress, stunted growth, and disrupted soil microbiomes.

2025 International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Article Tier 2

Multiomics Insights into the Ecotoxicological Effects of Soil Microplastics on Crop Plants

This review summarizes two decades of research on how soil microplastics affect crop plants, drawing on multiomics approaches including genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics. Researchers found that microplastics absorbed by crop roots and leaves can travel to reproductive organs, causing oxidative stress, genotoxicity, and disrupted nutrient uptake and photosynthesis. The study highlights that microplastic concentrations in intensive farming regions have reached significant levels.

2026 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Article Tier 2

The short-term effect of microplastics in lettuce involves size- and dose-dependent coordinate shaping of root metabolome, exudation profile and rhizomicrobiome

Researchers exposed lettuce plants to polyethylene plastic particles of four different sizes and concentrations, finding that the plastics altered root chemistry, changed what the roots released into the soil, and shifted the bacteria living around them. The effects depended strongly on particle size, with smaller particles causing different metabolic changes than larger ones. This study shows that microplastics in farm soil can change the biology of food crops from the roots up, potentially affecting both crop health and nutritional quality.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanotoxicological effects and transcriptome mechanisms of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under stress of polystyrene nanoplastics

Researchers studied how polystyrene nanoplastics affect wheat plants at the molecular level using gene expression analysis. They found that nanoplastic exposure disrupted genes involved in photosynthesis, hormone signaling, and stress responses, ultimately reducing plant growth. The study provides new insights into how nanoplastic contamination in agricultural soils could harm crop development at a fundamental biological level.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 148 citations
Article Tier 2

Agri-plastics in soils drive changes in the rhizosphere bacterial community and plant transcriptome in Arabidopsis

Researchers grew Arabidopsis thaliana in soils mixed with plastic film residues (≥5 mm at 5% w/w) and examined rhizosphere bacterial communities and plant gene expression. Plastic residues significantly altered rhizobacterial composition without affecting plant growth or flowering, suggesting soil microbiome disruption may precede visible plant effects.

2025 Journal of Experimental Botany
Article Tier 2

Reprogramming of microbial community in barley root endosphere and rhizosphere soil by polystyrene plastics with different particle sizes

Barley plants grown in polystyrene microplastic- and nanoplastic-contaminated soil showed altered microbial communities in both the root endosphere and rhizosphere, suggesting plastic pollution can reshape plant-associated microbiomes. These shifts could have downstream consequences for plant health and soil nutrient cycling.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 29 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of polystyrene microplastics on the agronomic traits and rhizosphere soil microbial community of highland barley

Researchers investigated how polystyrene microplastics of different sizes and concentrations affect highland barley growth and the microbial communities in surrounding soil. They found that smaller particles reduced grain weight while larger particles decreased spike dimensions, and all microplastic treatments significantly lowered soil bacterial diversity. The study also showed that adding degrading bacteria helped restore microbial community structure closer to normal conditions.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 50 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Different Microplastics on Wheat’s (Triticum aestivum L.) Growth Characteristics and Rhizosphere Soil Environment

Researchers exposed wheat plants to multiple types of microplastics — including polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene — at different concentrations to compare their effects on plant growth and physiological parameters. Different polymer types caused varying degrees of growth inhibition and oxidative stress.

2024 Plants 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro and nano-plastics on environmental health: a review on future thrust in agro-ecotoxicology management

This review examines the growing body of evidence on how microplastics and nanoplastics affect plant health, soil microbial communities, and agricultural productivity. The study highlights that plastic accumulation in agricultural soils can alter crop growth and yield while disrupting soil ecosystem dynamics, and calls for greater attention to agro-ecotoxicology management to address these emerging threats to food production.

2025 Environmental Geochemistry and Health 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Impacts of non-spherical polyethylene nanoplastics on microbial communities and antibiotic resistance genes in the rhizosphere of pea (Pisum sativum L.): An integrated metagenomic and metabolomic analysis

Researchers exposed pea plants to non-spherical polyethylene nanoplastics at 0, 20, and 200 mg/kg, finding that high doses significantly inhibited plant growth, restructured rhizosphere microbial communities, and elevated antibiotic resistance gene abundance via integrated metagenomics and metabolomics.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Effects of polypropylene micro(nano)plastics on soil bacterial and fungal community assembly in saline-alkaline wetlands

Scientists found that polypropylene nano-sized plastics disrupted soil bacterial communities more severely than micro-sized particles in saline wetland soil, reducing network complexity and altering how communities form. Bacteria were more sensitive to the plastic stress than fungi, and nanoplastics disrupted important interactions between soil microbes and plants. This suggests that as plastics break down into ever-smaller pieces in the environment, their impact on soil health may actually increase.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 13 citations
Review Tier 2

Unveiling the mechanism of micro-and-nano plastic phytotoxicity on terrestrial plants: A comprehensive review of omics approaches.

This comprehensive review examined how micro-and-nano plastics (MNPs) in terrestrial soils damage plant health by inhibiting water and nutrient uptake, reducing seed germination, impairing photosynthesis, and inducing oxidative stress. The review identified key knowledge gaps in understanding MNP phytotoxicity mechanisms and their implications for food security.

2025 Environment international
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Ecotoxicological effects of plastics on plants, soil fauna and microorganisms: A meta-analysis

Meta-analysis of 2,936 observations from 140 studies found that plastics caused substantial detrimental effects to plants and soil fauna, but had less impact on microbial diversity. Larger plastics (>1 um) impaired plant growth and germination while nanoplastics primarily increased oxidative stress, and soil fauna reproduction and survival were more adversely affected by smaller particles.

2022 Environmental Pollution 52 citations
Article Tier 2

Tiny pollutants, big consequences: investigating the influence of nano- and microplastics on soil properties and plant health with mitigation strategies

Researchers reviewed the impact of nanoplastics and microplastics on soil properties and plant health, examining absorption and translocation mechanisms in plants. The study suggests that plastic particles alter soil structure and microbial communities, impair plant growth and nutrient uptake, and proposes mitigation strategies to address these emerging threats to agricultural ecosystems.

2025 Environmental Science Processes & Impacts 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Impacts of Micro/Nanoplastics on Crop Physiology and Soil Ecosystems: A Review

This review synthesized evidence on how micro- and nanoplastics affect crop physiology and soil ecosystems, covering how plastic particles enter plants via roots, disrupt soil microbiota, and impair crop growth through oxidative stress, nutrient cycling disruption, and physical root interference. The authors found that nanoplastics pose greater plant risks than microplastics due to their ability to cross cell membranes.

2025 Soil Systems
Article Tier 2

Are nanoplastics potentially toxic for plants and rhizobiota? Current knowledge and recommendations

This review evaluates whether nanoplastics — the smallest plastic fragments, formed as larger plastics break down — are toxic to plants and the microorganisms living around their roots (rhizobiota). The evidence suggests nanoplastics can directly impair plant growth and indirectly harm soil biology by altering soil chemistry and releasing associated contaminants. Because soil is becoming a major reservoir for plastic pollution, understanding these effects is critical for global food security and soil ecosystem health.

2023 NanoImpact 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Uncovering the intricate relationship between plant nutrients and microplastics in agroecosystems

A study of wheat grown in soils with varying microplastic levels found complex interactions between MPs and plant macronutrients and micronutrients, with MPs altering nutrient uptake in ways that could affect crop productivity in contaminated agricultural soils.

2023 Chemosphere 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics induce molecular toxicity in earthworm: Integrated multi-omics, morphological, and intestinal microorganism analyses

Researchers used multi-omics analysis to study how even low concentrations of nanoplastics affect earthworms, important indicators of soil health. They found that nanoplastics accumulated in the earthworms' intestines, damaging their digestive and immune systems and disrupting gut microorganism communities. The study demonstrates that nanoplastics can cause molecular-level harm to soil organisms at concentrations that might be considered environmentally realistic.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 86 citations