Instituto Regional de Estudios en Sustancias Tóxicas (IRET), Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica.
Mol Ecol Resour. 2020 May;20(3). doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13161. Epub 2020 Apr 24.
To fully understand how plastic is affecting the ocean, we need to understand how marine life interacts directly with it. Besides their ecological relevance, microbes can affect the distribution, degradation and transfer of plastics to the rest of the marine food web. From amplicon sequencing and scanning electron microscopy, we know that a diverse array of microorganisms rapidly associate with plastic marine debris in the form of biofouling and biofilms, also known as the "Plastisphere." However, observation of multiple microbial interactions in situ, at small spatial scales in the Plastisphere, has been a challenge. In this issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, Schlundt et al. apply the combination labelling and spectral imaging - fluorescence in situ hybridization to study microbial communities on plastic marine debris. The images demonstrate the colocalization of abundant bacterial groups on plastic marine debris at a relatively high taxonomic and spatial resolution while also visualizing biofouling of eukaryotes, such as diatoms and bryozoans. This modern imaging technology provides new possibilities to address questions regarding the ecology of marine microbes on plastic marine debris and describe more specific impacts of plastic pollution in the marine food webs.
为了全面了解塑料如何影响海洋，我们需要了解海洋生物如何与之直接相互作用。除了其生态相关性外，微生物还会影响塑料在海洋食物网中的分布、降解和转移。通过扩增子测序和扫描电子显微镜，我们知道多种多样的微生物会迅速以生物污垢和生物膜的形式与海洋塑料碎片结合，这些生物膜也被称为“塑料圈”。然而，在原位观察小空间尺度上的多个微生物相互作用一直是一个挑战。在本期《分子生态学资源》中，Schlundt 等人应用组合标记和光谱成像-荧光原位杂交来研究海洋塑料碎片上的微生物群落。这些图像以相对较高的分类和空间分辨率展示了在塑料海洋碎片上丰富细菌群体的共定位，同时还可视化了真核生物（如硅藻和苔藓虫）的生物污垢。这项现代成像技术为解决有关海洋微生物在海洋塑料碎片上的生态学问题以及描述海洋食物网中塑料污染的更具体影响提供了新的可能性。
