Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Rhizosphere microbiome metagenomics in PGPR-mediated alleviation of combined stress from polypropylene microplastics and Cd in hybrid Pennisetum

Researchers found that beneficial soil bacteria (PGPR) can help plants cope with the combined stress of polypropylene microplastics and the toxic heavy metal cadmium. The bacteria improved plant growth by 8-42% under contaminated conditions by reshaping the microbial community around plant roots. This study offers a potential strategy for maintaining crop productivity in farmland contaminated with both microplastics and heavy metals.

2025 Frontiers in Microbiology 5 citations
Article Tier 2

[Plant Growth-promoting Bacteria Alleviate the Toxic Effects of Soil Microplastics and Heavy Metal Complex Pollution in Hybrid pennisetum].

Researchers investigated whether plant growth-promoting bacteria (Enterobacter and Bacillus spp.) could alleviate combined polypropylene microplastic and cadmium stress on Hybrid pennisetum in pot experiments, finding that inoculation improved plant growth and soil nutrient availability while shifting rhizosphere bacterial communities toward more beneficial compositions.

2025 PubMed
Article Tier 2

Beneficial microbial consortia effectively alleviated plant stress caused by the synergistic toxicity of microplastics and cadmium

Researchers found that combined pollution from microplastics (PVC) and the heavy metal cadmium creates a toxic effect in soil that is worse than either pollutant alone. However, applying beneficial bacteria to contaminated soil helped plants grow better and restored soil nutrients. These findings suggest that probiotic-like bacteria could help repair farmland damaged by microplastic and heavy metal pollution.

2025 Industrial Crops and Products 12 citations
Article Tier 2

[Transcriptome Analysis of Plant Growth-promoting Bacteria Alleviating Microplastic and Heavy Metal Combined Pollution Stress in Sorghum].

A transcriptomics study examined how the plant growth-promoting bacterium VY-1 alleviates combined stress from microplastics and heavy metals in sorghum grown in hydroponic conditions. Inoculation with VY-1 improved biomass and reduced heavy metal accumulation in sorghum, with gene expression analysis revealing the underlying protective mechanisms.

2024 PubMed 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Plant growth-promoting bacteria modulate gene expression and induce antioxidant tolerance to alleviate synergistic toxicity from combined microplastic and Cd pollution in sorghum

Scientists found that a beneficial soil bacterium (Bacillus sp. SL-413) can help protect sorghum plants from the combined toxic effects of microplastics and cadmium, a heavy metal. The bacterium boosted plant growth, reduced harmful reactive oxygen species by up to 27%, and reactivated genes that the pollution had shut down. This research points to a nature-based solution for helping food crops survive in microplastic-contaminated soil.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 49 citations
Article Tier 2

Screening of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria helps alleviate the joint toxicity of PVC+Cd pollution in sorghum plants

Researchers isolated soil bacteria that promote plant growth and showed they can partially offset the combined toxicity of PVC microplastics and cadmium in sorghum, restoring soil nutrient availability and shifting rhizosphere bacterial communities in ways that support nitrogen and phosphorus cycling.

2024 Environmental Pollution 24 citations
Article Tier 2

‘OMICS’ Studies on Rhizosphere-Microorganism Interactions in Soils

This review covers OMICS approaches—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics—used to study how plant root microbiomes interact with soil in the context of pollutants including microplastics and heavy metals. It highlights how rhizosphere microorganisms mediate phytoremediation and discusses multi-resistance challenges when pharmaceuticals and pesticides co-contaminate soils.

2025 BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS eBooks
Article Tier 2

Plant growth-promoting bacteria improve the Cd phytoremediation efficiency of soils contaminated with PE–Cd complex pollution by influencing the rhizosphere microbiome of sorghum

Researchers found that adding beneficial bacteria to soil contaminated with both polyethylene microplastics and the toxic metal cadmium helped sorghum plants grow larger and absorb more cadmium from the soil, improving cleanup potential. This approach matters for food safety because using plants and bacteria to remove combined microplastic-heavy metal pollution from farmland could reduce the amount of these contaminants that enter the food supply.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 49 citations
Article Tier 2

Deciphering the response of nodule bacteriome homeostasis in the bulk soil-rhizosphere-root-nodule ecosystem to soil microplastic pollution

Researchers examined how polyethylene microplastic contamination in soil affects the bacterial communities associated with legume plant root nodules. They found that microplastic treatments accelerated nodule formation but disrupted the balance of beneficial nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the nodules. The study suggests that soil microplastic pollution may interfere with the symbiotic relationship between legume crops and their nitrogen-fixing bacterial partners.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Potential impacts of polyethylene microplastics and heavy metals on Bidens pilosa L. growth: Shifts in root-associated endophyte microbial communities

Researchers found that polyethylene microplastics in soil contaminated with heavy metals significantly stunted plant growth, reducing root length by nearly 49% and increasing harmful reactive oxygen species in plant tissues. The microplastics also shifted the soil's microbial communities toward stress-resistant species, demonstrating how plastic pollution can disrupt the soil ecosystem that supports our food supply.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Polyethylene microplastics induce microbial functional reprogramming via rhizosphere network disruption, accelerating soil decline

Researchers used metabolomics and metagenomics to study how polyethylene microplastics affect the rhizosphere ecosystem of the medicinal plant Angelica sinensis. The study found that increasing microplastic concentrations disrupted microbial network stability, shifted metabolic pathways toward stress adaptation, and reduced soil quality, with bacteria serving as primary regulatory hubs in mediating these ecosystem-level changes.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Diversity and interactions of rhizobacteria determine multinutrient traits in tomato host plants under nitrogen and water disturbances

Researchers investigated how root-associated bacteria help tomato plants maintain nutrient uptake under nitrogen and water stress conditions. They found that microbial diversity and species interactions were key factors in supporting the plant's ability to acquire multiple nutrients simultaneously. While not directly about microplastics, the study advances understanding of soil microbiome dynamics that are relevant to agricultural systems increasingly affected by plastic contamination.

2024 Horticulture Research 5 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

Co-metabolic breakdown of LDPE microplastics in PGPR-Assisted phytoremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) microplastics were degraded through a co-metabolic process by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), suggesting that beneficial soil bacteria can be harnessed to break down plastic in the root zone. The approach offers a bioremediation strategy that simultaneously improves soil microbiome function.

2025 International Journal of Phytoremediation 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of long-term microplastic pollution on soil heavy metals and metal resistance genes: Distribution patterns and synergistic effects

Using metagenomics on cropland soils with long-term plastic film residues, researchers found that microplastic pollution alters heavy metal distribution and promotes the enrichment of metal resistance genes in soil microbial communities, with implications for food security.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of polyethylene microplastics and heavy metals on soil-plant microbial dynamics

This study examined how polyethylene microplastics interact with heavy metals in soil and found that microplastics significantly reduced plant growth while altering soil enzyme activity and microbial communities. The combination of microplastics and heavy metals disrupted nutrient cycling in the soil in ways that were different from either pollutant alone. These findings suggest that microplastic contamination in agricultural soil could affect crop nutrition and food production.

2023 Environmental Pollution 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Aging microplastic aggravates the pollution of heavy metals in rhizosphere biofilms

Researchers found that aging microplastics aggravate heavy metal pollution in rhizosphere biofilms, with weathered MPs accumulating more metals and altering microbial community structure in the root zone, potentially increasing contaminant transfer to plants.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 40 citations
Article Tier 2

Mitigation of microplastic toxicity in soybean by synthetic bacterial community and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi interaction: Altering carbohydrate metabolism, hormonal transduction, and genes associated with lipid and protein metabolism

Researchers found that inoculating soybean plants with a combination of mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria helped protect them from microplastic-induced stress, improving biomass, seed quality, antioxidant defenses, and hormone balance. The study suggests that soil microbe communities could be harnessed as a sustainable strategy to help crops cope with growing microplastic contamination in agricultural soils.

2024 Plant Stress 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Harnessing beneficial bacteria to remediate antibiotic-polluted agricultural soils: integrating source diversity, bioavailability modulators, and ecological impacts

This review examines how plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) can be used to remediate antibiotic-contaminated agricultural soils, covering the diversity of bacterial mechanisms and ecological risks. It also discusses how microplastics in soil interact with antibiotic persistence and resistance gene spread.

2025 Frontiers in Microbiology
Article Tier 2

Rhizospheric bacterial communities against microplastics (MPs): Novel ecological strategies based on the niche differentiation

Researchers studied how bacterial communities living around plant roots adapt when exposed to microplastics in soil. They found that rhizosphere bacteria developed distinct survival strategies depending on their ecological niche, with some species thriving while others declined in the presence of plastics. The study reveals that microplastics can reshape the microbial communities that plants depend on for nutrient uptake and disease resistance.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 6 citations