Stable isotopes and nanoSIMS single-cell imaging reveals soil plastisphere colonizers able to assimilate sulfamethoxazole.

The presence and accumulation of both, plastics and antibiotics in soils may lead to the colonization, selection, and propagation of soil bacteria with certain metabolic traits, e.g., antibiotic resistance, in the plastisphere. However, the impact of plastic-antibiotic tandem on the soil ecosystem functioning, particularly on microbial function and metabolism remains currently unexplored. Herein, we investigated the competence of soil bacteria to colonize plastics and degrade C-labeled sulfamethoxazole (SMX). Using single-cell imaging, isotope tracers, soil respiration and SMX mineralization bulk measurements we show that microbial colonization of polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS) surfaces takes place within the first 30 days of incubation. Morphologically diverse microorganisms were colonizing both plastic types, with a slight preference for PE substrate. CARD-FISH bacterial cell counts on PE and PS surfaces formed under SMX amendment ranged from 5.36 × 10 to 2.06 × 10, and 2.06 × 10 to 3.43 × 10 hybridized cells mm, respectively. Nano-scale Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry measurements show that C enrichment was highest at 130 days with values up to 1.29 atom%, similar to those of the CO pool (up to 1.26 atom%, or 22.55 ‰). Independent Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference between the control plastisphere samples incubated without SMX and those in C-SMX incubations (P < 0.001). Our results provide direct evidence demonstrating, at single-cell level, the capacity of bacterial colonizers of plastics to assimilate C-SMX from contaminated soils. These findings expand our knowledge on the role of soil-seeded plastisphere microbiota in the ecological functioning of soils impacted by anthropogenic stressors.