Department of Biological Oceanography, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), Rostock, Germany.
Institute of Pharmacy, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Environ Microbiol. 2021 Jun;23(6):3099-3115. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15531. Epub 2021 May 6.
Microplastics in marine ecosystems are colonized by diverse prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities. How these communities and their functional profiles are shaped by the artificial surfaces remains broadly unknown. In order to close this knowledge gap, we set up an in situ experiment with pellets of the polyolefin polymer polyethylene (PE), the aromatic hydrocarbon polymer polystyrene (PS), and wooden beads along a coastal to estuarine gradient in the Baltic Sea, Germany. We used an integrated metagenomics/metaproteomics approach to evaluate the genomic potential as well as protein expression levels of aquatic plastic biofilms. Our results suggest that material properties had a minor influence on the plastic-associated assemblages, as genomic and proteomic profiles of communities associated with the structurally different polymers PE and PS were highly similar, hence polymer-unspecific. Instead, it seemed that these communities were shaped by biogeographic factors. Wood, on the other hand, induced the formation of substrate-specific biofilms and served as nutrient source itself. Our study indicates that, while PE and PS microplastics may be relevant in the photic zone as opportunistic colonization grounds for phototrophic microorganisms, they appear not to be subject to biodegradation or serve as vectors for pathogenic microorganisms in marine habitats.
海洋生态系统中的微塑料被各种原核生物和真核生物群落所定植。这些群落及其功能特征是如何被人工表面塑造的,目前还知之甚少。为了填补这一知识空白,我们在德国波罗的海的沿海到河口梯度上,用聚烯烃聚合物聚乙烯(PE)、芳香烃聚合物聚苯乙烯(PS)和木珠的小球体进行了一项现场实验。我们采用了一种综合的宏基因组/宏蛋白质组学方法来评估水生塑料生物膜的基因组潜力和蛋白表达水平。我们的研究结果表明,材料特性对与塑料相关的组合体的影响较小,因为与结构不同的聚合物 PE 和 PS 相关的群落的基因组和蛋白质组谱非常相似,因此是聚合物非特异性的。相反,这些群落似乎是由生物地理因素塑造的。另一方面,木材诱导了基质特异性生物膜的形成,并本身作为营养源。我们的研究表明,虽然 PE 和 PS 微塑料在光区可能作为光养微生物的机会性定植地具有相关性,但它们似乎不会被生物降解,也不会在海洋生境中作为病原体微生物的载体。