Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

A Comprehensive Review of Biofilm Composition and Factors Affecting Efficacy in Microbial Bioremediation

This review examines biofilm-mediated bioremediation, analyzing biofilm formation, structural diversity, and biochemical degradation pathways used to break down organic pollutants, heavy metals, microplastics, and pharmaceutical contaminants, while also discussing environmental factors and challenges such as antimicrobial resistance that affect biofilm efficacy in real-world remediation applications.

2025 International Journal of Plant and Environment
Article Tier 2

Biofilm-mediated bioremediation of xenobiotics and heavy metals: a comprehensive review of microbial ecology, molecular mechanisms, and emerging biotechnological applications

This review explores how bacterial biofilms can be used to break down environmental pollutants, including heavy metals, pesticides, oil spills, and microplastics. Researchers found that the unique structure of biofilms gives them superior pollutant-degrading abilities compared to free-floating bacteria, and new advances like CRISPR gene editing and nanoparticle integration are making them even more effective. The study suggests that biofilm-based approaches offer a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to tackle a wide range of contamination problems.

2025 3 Biotech 15 citations
Article Tier 2

The Importance of Biofilms to the Fate and Effects of Microplastics

This review examines how biofilms — communities of microorganisms that form on microplastic surfaces — affect the fate and ecological effects of plastic pollution. Biofilm formation alters how microplastics are transported, ingested, and degraded in the environment, and the plastisphere can harbor pathogens and antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may pose risks to human health.

2020 IntechOpen eBooks 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Colonization characteristics and surface effects of microplastic biofilms: Implications for environmental behavior of typical pollutants

This review examines how bacteria colonize microplastic surfaces in water, forming biofilms that change how the plastics behave in the environment. These biofilms alter the surface properties of microplastics and affect how they absorb and transport heavy metals and other pollutants. Understanding biofilm formation on microplastics is important because it can make the particles more dangerous by concentrating toxic substances that could eventually enter the food chain.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 65 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic-Associated Biofilms and Their Role in the Fate of Microplastics in Aquatic Environment

This review examines how microbial biofilms attached to microplastics in aquatic environments mediate the accumulation and transfer of chemical pollutants, exploring how the 'plastisphere' community influences the fate and ecotoxicological impact of microplastics and co-contaminants.

2025
Review Tier 2

Ecotoxicological and health implications of microplastic-associated biofilms: a recent review and prospect for turning the hazards into benefits

This review examined the ecological and health implications of biofilms that form on microplastics, discussing how these plastisphere communities can harbor pathogens and alter microplastic properties, while also exploring potential beneficial applications of microplastic-associated biofilms.

2022 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilm formation and its implications on the properties and fate of microplastics in aquatic environments: A review

Researchers reviewed how microplastics in water attract and support communities of bacteria and other microorganisms that form biofilms — living coatings that alter the plastic particles' movement, help them carry pathogens, and affect how toxic chemicals attached to the plastic are absorbed by living things. Understanding this "plastisphere" ecosystem is critical for predicting where microplastics go and how harmful they become.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 219 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilm on microplastics in aqueous environment: Physicochemical properties and environmental implications

This review examines how bacteria and other microorganisms form sticky films called biofilms on microplastic surfaces in water. These biofilms change how microplastics move through the environment and increase their ability to absorb pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides, and antibiotics. Biofilm-coated microplastics may also carry harmful bacteria, making them a greater potential health risk than clean microplastic particles.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 353 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilm Dynamics and Environmental Implications on Plastic Surfaces

This chapter reviews biofilm formation dynamics on marine microplastics, examining how material properties, environmental conditions, and microbial succession drive plastisphere development and discussing ecological implications including the spread of antibiotic resistance genes.

2025
Article Tier 2

Beyond the Surface: Biofilms and Microplastics in Aquatic Systems

This review examines how microbial biofilms that form on microplastic surfaces (the 'plastisphere') influence particle transport, degradation rates, and potential toxicity in aquatic environments, including the role of biofilms in carrying pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microbial Biofilms – Pollutant Load Suppressor

This review examines how microbial biofilms can be harnessed to degrade environmental pollutants including heavy metals, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and microplastics. Biofilm-based bioreactors and microbial fuel cells represent promising biotechnology approaches for sustainable wastewater treatment.

2023 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigating Biofilms: Advanced Methods for Comprehending Microbial Behavior and Antibiotic Resistance

This review summarizes recent advances in biofilm research, focusing on how communities of microorganisms form protective layers on surfaces and become resistant to antibiotics. The sticky matrix that holds biofilms together plays a key role in spreading antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria. While not directly about microplastics, the findings are relevant because microplastics in the environment serve as surfaces where these resistant biofilms can form and spread.

2024 Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Microbiome Interactions: Emerging Threats and Bioremediation Potentials

This review examines the plastisphere — microbial communities that colonize plastic surfaces — covering how these biofilms influence the fate and toxicity of microplastics while acting as vectors for pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes, and discussing their potential for bioremediation.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Microbiome Interactions: Emerging Threats and Bioremediation Potentials

This review examines the plastisphere — microbial communities that colonize plastic surfaces — covering how these biofilms influence the fate and toxicity of microplastics while acting as vectors for pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes, and discussing their potential for bioremediation.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

(micro)Plastic biofilms: Keeping afloat by carving out a new niche

This review examined how microplastics accumulate microbial biofilms, creating a distinct ecological niche with unique community composition and metabolic activities. The microplastic biofilm, or plastisphere, can harbor pathogens and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, raising concerns about plastic particles as vectors of biological hazards.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

The effects of metals and polymer types on the development of biofilm on microplastic surface

Researchers examined biofilm development on three polymer types (PVC, polystyrene, and polyethylene) in the presence of three heavy metals (lead, chromium, and cadmium) to determine how metal contamination influences the formation and composition of plastisphere communities. The study assessed whether metal-microplastic co-contamination alters the structure of microbial biofilms that colonize plastic surfaces in aquatic environments.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Marine microplastic-associated biofilms – a review

This review synthesizes research on biofilm communities forming on marine microplastics, covering their composition, formation dynamics, and potential consequences for both plastic fate and ocean microbiology. The authors highlight that plastic-associated biofilms can include pathogens and toxin producers, and that the plastisphere community differs meaningfully from the surrounding seawater microbiome.

2015 Environmental Chemistry 463 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics–biofilm in aquatic ecosystem: Formation, pollutants complexation, greenhouse gas emission and ecotoxicology

This review examines how microplastics in water develop biofilms (layers of bacteria and other microorganisms) that make them stickier and more capable of absorbing harmful pollutants. These microplastic-biofilm combinations can carry heavy metals, organic contaminants, and disease-causing microorganisms through aquatic environments, and even contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The findings are relevant to human health because contaminated microplastics with biofilms are more likely to carry toxic substances into the food chain.

2024 Journal of Environmental Management 16 citations
Review Tier 2

Research progress on the role of biofilm in heavy metals adsorption-desorption characteristics of microplastics: A review

This review examines how biofilm formation on microplastics in aquatic environments modifies their properties and changes how they adsorb and release heavy metals. Researchers found that biofilm-covered microplastics behave significantly differently than bare microplastics, which has important implications for understanding the combined environmental risks of microplastics and heavy metal contamination.

2023 Environmental Pollution 53 citations
Article Tier 2

Aquatic Biofilms and Plastisphere

This review examined aquatic biofilms and plastisphere communities that colonize microplastic surfaces, discussing how plastic substrates select for distinct microbial assemblages and may harbor pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes.

2024 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of particle size on the colonization of biofilms and the potential of biofilm-covered microplastics as metal carriers

Industrial and food-grade polystyrene microplastics of different sizes were colonized by biofilms in aquatic conditions, with smaller particles supporting denser biofilm growth and showing greater metal adsorption capacity than larger ones. The findings suggest that particle size is a key factor governing both the ecological properties of the plastisphere and the capacity of microplastics to concentrate heavy metals.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 73 citations
Article Tier 2

Biofilm formation on polyethylene microplastics and their role as transfer vector of emerging organic pollutants

This study examined how bacteria form biofilms on polyethylene microplastics and whether those biofilms help transport organic pollutants like common pharmaceuticals and pesticides. Researchers found that the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa readily colonized microplastics, and the presence of contaminants in the water altered biofilm characteristics. The findings suggest that microplastics in waterways may act as carriers that help spread pharmaceutical and chemical pollutants through aquatic environments.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastisphere showing unique microbiome and resistome different from activated sludge

Researchers used metagenomics to compare the microbiome and resistome of PVC plastisphere biofilms with activated sludge, finding that microplastic surfaces enriched distinct pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes that differ from the surrounding sludge community.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 32 citations
Article Tier 2

Structural and Functional Characteristics of Microplastic Associated Biofilms in Response to Temporal Dynamics and Polymer Types

Researchers found that biofilm structural and functional characteristics on microplastics differ significantly depending on polymer type (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene) and change over time, with implications for understanding microbial colonization and the plastisphere.

2021 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 41 citations