Proteomics and Microbiology Department, University of Mons, 20 place du Parc, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
Oceanology Department, University of Liège, 11 Allée du 6 août, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
J Hazard Mater. 2019 Dec 15;380:120899. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.120899. Epub 2019 Jul 15.
Most plastics are released to the environment in landfills and around 32% end up in the sea, inducing large ecological and health impacts. The plastics constitute a physical substrate and potential carbon source for microorganisms. The present study compares the structures of bacterial communities from floating plastics, sediment-associated plastics and sediments from the Mediterranean Sea. The 16S rRNA microbiome profiles of surface and sediment plastic-associated microbial biofilms from the same geographic location differ significantly, with the omnipresence of Bacteroidetes and Gammaproteobacteria. Our research confirmed that plastisphere hosts microbial communities were environmental distinct niche. In parallel, this study used environmental samples to investigate the enrichment of potential plastic-degrading bacteria with Low Density PolyEthylene (LDPE), PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET) and PolyStyrene (PS) plastics as the sole carbon source. In this context, we showed that the bacterial community composition is clearly plastic nature dependent. Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria such as Alcanivorax, Marinobacter and Arenibacter genera are enriched with LDPE and PET, implying that these bacteria are potential players in plastic degradation. Finally, our data showed for the first time the ability of Alcanivorax borkumensis to form thick biofilms specifically on LDPE and to degrade this petroleum-based plastic.
大多数塑料被丢弃在垃圾填埋场，约 32%的塑料最终进入海洋，这对生态系统和人类健康造成了重大影响。塑料是微生物的物理基质和潜在碳源。本研究比较了来自地中海的漂浮塑料、与沉积物相关的塑料以及沉积物中的细菌群落结构。来自同一地理位置的表面和沉积物塑料相关微生物生物膜的 16S rRNA 微生物组图谱有显著差异，普遍存在拟杆菌门和γ变形菌门。我们的研究证实了塑料圈内的微生物群落是具有独特环境特征的生态位。同时，本研究使用环境样本，以低密度聚乙烯（LDPE）、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）和聚苯乙烯（PS）塑料作为唯一碳源，研究了潜在塑料降解细菌的富集情况。在这种情况下，我们表明细菌群落组成明显依赖于塑料的性质。烃类降解菌，如 Alcanivorax、Marinobacter 和 Arenibacter 属，在 LDPE 和 PET 上得到了富集，这意味着这些细菌可能是塑料降解的潜在参与者。最后，我们的数据首次表明，Alcanivorax borkumensis 能够在 LDPE 上形成厚厚的生物膜，并降解这种石油基塑料。
