Hou Dandi, Hong Man, Wang Yanting, Dong Pengsheng, Cheng Huangwei, Yan Huizhen, Yao Zhiyuan, Li Daoji, Wang Kai, Zhang Demin
State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-Products, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.
School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.
Microorganisms. 2021 Sep 9;9(9):1909. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9091909.
As microplastic pollution continues to increase, an emerging threat is the potential for microplastics to act as novel substrates and/or carriers for pathogens. This is of particular concern for aquatic product safety given the growing evidence of microplastic ingestion by aquaculture species. However, the potential risks of pathogens associated with microplastics in mariculture remain poorly understood. Here, an in situ incubation experiment involving three typical microplastics including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP) was conducted during the summer-autumn period in a mariculture cage. The identification of potential pathogens based on the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and a custom-made database for pathogenic bacteria involved in aquatic environments, was performed to assess the risks of different microplastics attaching potential pathogens. The enrichment of pathogens was not observed in microplastic-associated communities when compared with free-living and particle-attached communities in surrounding seawater. Despite the lower relative abundance, pathogens showed different preferences for three microplastic substrates, of which PET was the most favored by pathogens, especially potentially pathogenic members of , , and . Moreover, the colonization of these pathogens on microplastics was strongly affected by environmental factors (e.g., temperature, nitrite). Our results provide insights into the ecological risks of microplastics in mariculture industry.
随着微塑料污染持续增加，一个新出现的威胁是微塑料有可能作为病原体的新型基质和/或载体。鉴于越来越多的证据表明水产养殖物种会摄入微塑料，这对水产品安全尤为令人担忧。然而，海水养殖中与微塑料相关的病原体的潜在风险仍知之甚少。在此，在夏秋季节于海水养殖网箱中进行了一项原位培养实验，涉及三种典型微塑料，即聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯（PET）、聚乙烯（PE）和聚丙烯（PP）。基于16S rRNA基因扩增子测序以及一个针对水生环境中致病细菌的定制数据库对潜在病原体进行鉴定，以评估不同微塑料附着潜在病原体的风险。与周围海水中的自由生活群落和颗粒附着群落相比，在微塑料相关群落中未观察到病原体的富集。尽管相对丰度较低，但病原体对三种微塑料基质表现出不同偏好，其中PET最受病原体青睐，尤其是 、 和 的潜在致病成员。此外，这些病原体在微塑料上的定殖受到环境因素（如温度、亚硝酸盐）的强烈影响。我们的结果为海水养殖行业中微塑料的生态风险提供了见解。
