Key Laboratory of Marine Bioactive Substance, the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China.
Key Laboratory of Marine Bioactive Substance, the First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China; Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2019 Aug;145:278-286. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.05.036. Epub 2019 Jun 3.
Microplastics have emerged as new pollutants in oceans. Nevertheless, information of the long-term variations in the composition of plastic-associated microbial communities in coastal waters remains limited. This study applied high-throughput sequencing to investigate the successional stages of microbial communities attached to polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride microplastics exposed for one year in the coastal seawater of China. The composition of plastisphere microbial communities varied remarkably across geographical locations and exposure times. The dominant bacteria in the plastisphere were affiliated with the Alphaproteobacteria class, particularly Rhodobacteraceae, followed by the Gammaproteobacteria class. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that the microplastics showed signs of degradation. Microbial communities showed adaptations to plastisphere including more diverse microbial community and greater "xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism" in metabolic pathway analysis. The findings elucidate the long-term changes in the community composition of microorganisms that colonize microplastics and expand the understanding of plastisphere microbial communities present in the marine environment.
微塑料已成为海洋中的新型污染物。然而，有关沿海海域中与塑料相关的微生物群落组成的长期变化的信息仍然有限。本研究应用高通量测序技术，调查了在中国沿海海水中暴露一年的聚丙烯和聚氯乙烯微塑料上附着的微生物群落的演替阶段。在地理区域和暴露时间上，附着在塑料上的微生物群落的组成有显著差异。附着在塑料上的细菌主要与α变形菌门有关，特别是红杆菌科，其次是γ变形菌门。扫描电子显微镜分析显示，微塑料出现了降解迹象。微生物群落对塑料层表现出适应性，包括更丰富的微生物群落和更大的“外源物质生物降解和代谢”在代谢途径分析中。这些发现阐明了在海洋环境中，定殖于微塑料上的微生物群落组成的长期变化。
