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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to The impact of microplastics on small organism dispersal: mechanisms, risks, and research gaps
ClearPathogens transported by plastic debris: does this vector pose a risk to aquatic organisms?
This review examined whether microplastics act as vectors for pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Evidence indicates that diverse microorganisms including pathogens adhere to microplastic surfaces, and modeling suggested potential for long-range pathogen transport, though the scale of ecological and public health risk remains uncertain.
Microplastics: A Potential Vector for Pathogens in Aquatic Ecosystems
This review examines the evidence that microplastics act as vectors for pathogens in aquatic environments, summarizing how the large surface area and persistence of microplastics promote pathogen adhesion, biofilm formation, and transport of harmful microorganisms.
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.
The Importance of Biofilms on Microplastic Particles in Their Sinking Behavior and the Transfer of Invasive Organisms between Ecosystems
This review explores how biofilm formation on microplastic surfaces, known as the plastisphere, affects the transport and ecological impact of plastic particles in marine environments. Researchers found that biofilm colonization can cause microplastics to sink from the ocean surface, altering their distribution through the water column, while also providing a habitat that protects invasive microbial species. The study suggests that some plastisphere organisms with plastic-degrading abilities could potentially be harnessed for marine pollution cleanup strategies.
Are microplastics spreading infectious disease?
Researchers explored whether microplastics in the environment could serve as vehicles for spreading infectious disease-causing organisms. Evidence indicates that bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens can attach to microplastic surfaces and potentially be transported across aquatic environments. The study raises important questions about a previously underappreciated pathway through which plastic pollution could affect public health.
Plastics and Microplastics as Vectors for Bacteria and Human Pathogens
This study reviewed how marine plastic debris serves as a surface for bacterial colonization, including human pathogens, and examined the novel communities forming on plastic surfaces. The research raises public health concerns about microplastics acting as rafts that transport harmful bacteria to new locations, including to seafood and coastal recreational areas.
Recent advances in the relationships between biofilms and microplastics in natural environments
This review summarizes how microorganisms form biofilms on the surface of microplastics in water, changing the particles' physical properties and helping to spread bacteria and genes across ecosystems. These biofilm-coated microplastics can carry harmful microbes into new environments, raising concerns about waterborne disease transmission and the effectiveness of current water treatment methods.
Microplastics as Vectors of Chemicals and Microorganisms in the Environment
This review examines microplastics as vectors for chemicals and microorganisms in the environment, discussing the 'plastisphere' concept, hydrophobic surface interactions that facilitate pollutant adsorption, biofilm formation, and the mechanisms by which microplastics transport contaminants and pathogens through aquatic systems.
Micro(nano)plastics: Unignorable vectors for organisms
This review examines the role of micro- and nanoplastics as vectors for contaminants — including heavy metals, organic pollutants, and pathogens — in aquatic and terrestrial environments. It synthesizes evidence on how plastic particles can adsorb, transport, and release harmful substances, amplifying their ecological and health risks beyond the physical effects of the particles alone.
Distribution, biological effects and biofilms of microplastics in freshwater systems - A review
This review examines microplastic distribution, biological effects, and biofilm formation in freshwater systems, highlighting knowledge gaps compared to marine studies and the ecological risks posed by microplastics as vectors for pathogens and pollutants.
Fate and transport of biological microcontaminants bound to microplastics in the soil environment
This review explores how microplastics in soil can carry biological contaminants like antibiotic resistance genes, small RNA molecules, and pathogenic viruses. Unlike chemical pollutants, these biological hitchhikers on microplastic surfaces remain understudied, especially in terrestrial environments. Understanding this transport mechanism matters because contaminated microplastics in agricultural soil could introduce harmful biological agents into the food chain.
Role of traveling microplastics as bacterial carriers based on spatial and temporal dynamics of bacterial communities
Researchers tracked how the bacterial communities on traveling microplastics gradually shift to match the communities on local microplastics, a process called localization, finding that spatial and temporal dynamics of bacterial colonization determine microplastics' role as vectors for bacteria across environments.
Impact of Biofilm Formation on Microplastic Behaviour in Aquatic Environments: An Comprehensive Review.
This review examines how biofilms — communities of microorganisms that coat microplastics — change the behavior of plastic particles in aquatic environments, affecting how they move, sink, and interact with ecosystems. Understanding biofilm formation on microplastics is key to predicting where these particles end up and what risks they pose to water quality and aquatic life.
Viruses in the era of microplastics and plastispheres: Analytical methods, advances and future directions
This review examines how viruses interact with microplastics in the environment, including how viral particles attach to plastic surfaces and what this means for human and environmental health. Microplastics can carry viruses across water environments, and the biofilms that form on plastic surfaces create conditions for viral survival and gene transfer. These findings raise concerns that microplastics could serve as vehicles for spreading disease-causing viruses through water systems.
Microplastics and Nanoplastics as Carriers for Viral Transmission: Effects on Viral Properties, Infection, Immune Response, and Public Health
This review examined how microplastics and nanoplastics can act as carriers for viruses, potentially influencing the spread of infectious diseases. Researchers found that plastic particles create a surface habitat called the plastisphere that promotes microbial growth and can serve as a reservoir for pathogens. The study suggests that micro- and nanoplastics may alter viral persistence, infection dynamics, and immune responses, though significant knowledge gaps remain about the real-world impact on public health.
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.
Pathogenic Hitchhikers on Microplastics: Ecological Risks and Gaps Gleaned from Two Decades of Research
This review examined two decades of research on pathogenic microorganisms associated with microplastics, identifying only 57 published studies on the topic. The most commonly reported pathogens found on microplastic surfaces were Vibrio species, with polyethylene and polypropylene being the polymer types most frequently associated with pathogen colonization, confirming that microplastics can serve as vectors for spreading disease-causing organisms in the environment.
The potential role of micro- and nanoplastics in the spread of viruses
This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics may act as vehicles that amplify the spread and infectivity of pathogenic viruses in humans and animals, explaining that the plastisphere (the microbial community living on plastic surfaces) can preserve viruses and that plastics weaken the body's natural barrier tissues. The authors warn that plastic particles carrying viruses could increase infection risk and potentially even help viruses develop new variants, calling for urgent interdisciplinary research.
Hitchhikers on traveling microplastics: Three necessary steps for bacteria becoming dangerous invaders
Researchers reviewed whether bacteria hitchhiking on traveling microplastics can actually become invasive species in new environments, concluding that three steps — arriving, detaching, and growing — are all required, and that the ecological risk may have been overestimated. This more nuanced framework helps scientists better assess when microplastic-carried bacteria truly pose a threat to new ecosystems.
The hidden risk of microplastic-associated pathogens in aquatic environments
This review examines the overlooked risk that microplastics in water can serve as vehicles for disease-causing bacteria and other pathogens. Microplastics provide a surface where harmful microorganisms can grow, survive longer, and travel farther than they would on their own. This means microplastic pollution in lakes, rivers, and oceans could increase the risk of waterborne infections in people who swim in, drink from, or eat seafood from contaminated water.
Association between Microorganisms and Microplastics: How Does It Change the Host–Pathogen Interaction and Subsequent Immune Response?
This review explores how microplastics act as surfaces where bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms can attach and change their properties. When germs hitchhike on microplastic particles, their physical and chemical traits can shift, potentially tricking or overwhelming the immune system in new ways. The findings suggest that microplastic-associated pathogens could pose unexpected risks to human health by triggering abnormal immune responses.
Plastisphere-hosted viruses: A review of interactions, behavior, and effects
This review examines how viruses attach to and thrive on microplastic surfaces in the environment, forming communities called the "plastisphere." These virus-laden microplastics can spread disease-causing agents through water and ecosystems, potentially reaching humans and posing public health risks that scientists are only beginning to understand.
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.
Plastics as vectors for pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes in aquatic systems.
This review examined how plastics in aquatic systems act as vectors for pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes, summarizing attachment mechanisms, transport dynamics, and the implications for water quality and public health.