Fouling Microbial Communities on Plastics Compared with Wood and Steel: Are They Substrate- or Location-Specific?

Muthukrishnan, T. S.; Khaburi, Maryam Al; Abed, Raeild M. M.

doi:10.1007/s00248-018-1303-0

Cited by 74 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 112 publications

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“…Currently, it remains challenging to determine if specific polymers select for a specific microbial community across a broader scale of environmental settings. Variations in microbial communities may originate from investigations conducted in different geographical locations with different environmental conditions ( Oberbeckmann et al, 2018 ; Kesy et al, 2019 ; Li et al, 2019 ; Muthukrishnan et al, 2019 ; Erni-Cassola et al, 2020 ; Wright et al, 2020 ). Moreover, the differences in experimental design make it challenging to clearly determine in how far differences in microbial community structure depend on the polymer type.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Communities on Plastic Polymers in the Mediterranean Sea

et al. 2021

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Plastic particles in the ocean are typically covered with microbial biofilms, but it remains unclear whether distinct microbial communities colonize different polymer types. In this study, we analyzed microbial communities forming biofilms on floating microplastics in a bay of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea. Raman spectroscopy revealed that the plastic particles mainly comprised polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) of which polyethylene and polypropylene particles were typically brittle and featured cracks. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and imaging by high-resolution microscopy revealed dense microbial biofilms on the polymer surfaces. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene showed that the bacterial communities on all plastic types consisted mainly of the orders Flavobacteriales, Rhodobacterales, Cytophagales, Rickettsiales, Alteromonadales, Chitinophagales, and Oceanospirillales. We found significant differences in the biofilm community composition on PE compared with PP and PS (on OTU and order level), which shows that different microbial communities colonize specific polymer types. Furthermore, the sequencing data also revealed a higher relative abundance of archaeal sequences on PS in comparison with PE or PP. We furthermore found a high occurrence, up to 17% of all sequences, of different hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria on all investigated plastic types. However, their functioning in the plastic-associated biofilm and potential role in plastic degradation needs further assessment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Communities on Plastic Polymers in the Mediterranean Sea

et al. 2021

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“…Muthukrishnan et al [108] investigated microbial biofouling at two locations in the Sea of Oman (Arabian Gulf) by comparing the microbial communities developed on PET and PE with those on steel and wood. Substrate and location-specific effects were found, with the bacterial genera Microcystis and Hydrogenophaga and the diatoms Licmophora and Mastogloia specifically attached to plastics, while Desulfovibrio and Pseudomonas spp.…”

Section: Mixed Substratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Colonization in Marine Environments: Overview of Current Knowledge and Emerging Research Topics

Caruso¹

2020

JMSE

124

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Microbial biofilms are biological structures composed of surface-attached microbial communities embedded in an extracellular polymeric matrix. In aquatic environments, the microbial colonization of submerged surfaces is a complex process involving several factors, related to both environmental conditions and to the physical-chemical nature of the substrates. Several studies have addressed this issue; however, more research is still needed on microbial biofilms in marine ecosystems. After a brief report on environmental drivers of biofilm formation, this study reviews current knowledge of microbial community attached to artificial substrates, as obtained by experiments performed on several material types deployed in temperate and extreme polar marine ecosystems. Depending on the substrate, different microbial communities were found, sometimes highlighting the occurrence of species-specificity. Future research challenges and concluding remarks are also considered. Emphasis is given to future perspectives in biofilm studies and their potential applications, related to biofouling prevention (such as cell-to-cell communication by quorum sensing or improved knowledge of drivers/signals affecting biological settlement) as well as to the potential use of microbial biofilms as sentinels of environmental changes and new candidates for bioremediation purposes.

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“…Microbial members of the Plastisphere have been found to be: (i) different from communities that colonize other surfaces [25][26][27]; (ii) not different from communities that colonize other surfaces [28]; (iii) only different from communities colonizing other surfaces under specific environmental conditions [29,30] or at specific time points [31]; (iv) more diverse than other microbial communities [32]; (v) less diverse than other microbial communities [33,34]; (vi) potentially degrading the plastics that they colonize [35,36]; (vii) capable of degrading plastic additives [33,37,38]; and (viii) pathogenic and/or carrying antimicrobial resistance genes [39][40][41][42]. The marine Plastisphere has been heavily reviewed within the last year, e.g., [18,[43][44][45][46], and there are also several recent reviews on plastic biodegradation, e.g., [47][48][49].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food or just a free ride? A meta-analysis reveals the global diversity of the Plastisphere

2020

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It is now indisputable that plastics are ubiquitous and problematic in ecosystems globally. Many suggestions have been made about the role that biofilms colonizing plastics in the environment—termed the “Plastisphere”—may play in the transportation and ecological impact of these plastics. By collecting and re-analyzing all raw 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metadata from 2,229 samples within 35 studies, we have performed the first meta-analysis of the Plastisphere in marine, freshwater, other aquatic (e.g., brackish or aquaculture) and terrestrial environments. We show that random forest models can be trained to differentiate between groupings of environmental factors as well as aspects of study design, but—crucially—also between plastics when compared with control biofilms and between different plastic types and community successional stages. Our meta-analysis confirms that potentially biodegrading Plastisphere members, the hydrocarbonoclastic Oceanospirillales and Alteromonadales are consistently more abundant in plastic than control biofilm samples across multiple studies and environments. This indicates the predilection of these organisms for plastics and confirms the urgent need for their ability to biodegrade plastics to be comprehensively tested. We also identified key knowledge gaps that should be addressed by future studies.

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Fouling Microbial Communities on Plastics Compared with Wood and Steel: Are They Substrate- or Location-Specific?

Cited by 74 publications

References 112 publications

Microbial Communities on Plastic Polymers in the Mediterranean Sea

Microbial Communities on Plastic Polymers in the Mediterranean Sea

Microbial Colonization in Marine Environments: Overview of Current Knowledge and Emerging Research Topics

Food or just a free ride? A meta-analysis reveals the global diversity of the Plastisphere

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