Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms, Naples, Italy; Center for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn, UK.
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms, Naples, Italy.
Chemosphere. 2024 May;356:141887. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141887. Epub 2024 Apr 5.
Microplastics pose risks to marine organisms through ingestion, entanglement, and as carriers of toxic additives and environmental pollutants. Plastic pre-production pellet leachates have been shown to affect the development of sea urchins and, to some extent, mussels. The extent of those developmental effects on other animal phyla remains unknown. Here, we test the toxicity of environmental mixed nurdle samples and new PVC pellets for the embryonic development or asexual reproduction by regeneration of animals from all the major animal superphyla (Lophotrochozoa, Ecdysozoa, Deuterostomia and Cnidaria). Our results show diverse, concentration-dependent impacts in all the species sampled for new pellets, and for molluscs and deuterostomes for environmental samples. Embryo axial formation, cell specification and, specially, morphogenesis seem to be the main processes affected by plastic leachate exposure. Our study serves as a proof of principle for the potentially catastrophic effects that increasing plastic concentrations in the oceans and other ecosystems can have across animal populations from all major animal superphyla.
微塑料通过摄入、缠绕以及作为有毒添加剂和环境污染物的载体对海洋生物构成威胁。已证明塑料预生产颗粒浸出物会影响海胆的发育，并在一定程度上影响贻贝。这些发育影响在其他动物门中的程度尚不清楚。在这里，我们测试了环境混合 nurdle 样品和新的 PVC 颗粒的毒性，这些毒性会通过动物所有主要动物超门（有钩动物、节肢动物、后口动物和刺胞动物）的胚胎发育或无性繁殖再生来表现。我们的结果表明，新颗粒以及环境样品中的软体动物和后口动物的所有采样物种都表现出多样化、浓度依赖性的影响。胚胎轴向形成、细胞特化，特别是形态发生，似乎是受塑料浸出物暴露影响的主要过程。我们的研究证明了这样一个原理，即在海洋和其他生态系统中，塑料浓度的增加可能对来自所有主要动物超门的动物种群产生潜在的灾难性影响。
