Abstract
Microplastic (MP)-colonizing microorganisms are important links for the potential impacts on environmental, health, and biochemical circulation in various ecosystems but are not yet well understood. In addition, biofilms serve as bioindicators for the evaluation of pollutant effects on ecosystems. This study describes the ability of three polyethylene-type microplastics, white (W-), blue (B-), and fluorescent blue (FB-) MPs, to support microbial colonization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the effect of mixed organic contaminants (OCs: amoxicillin, ibuprofen, sertraline, and simazine) on plastic-associated biofilms, and the role of biofilms as transfer vectors of such emerging pollutants. Our results showed that P. aeruginosa had a strong ability to produce biofilms on MPs, although the protein amount of biomass formed on FB-MP was 1.6- and 2.4-fold higher than that on B- and W-MP, respectively. When OCs were present in the culture medium, a decrease in cell viability was observed in the W-MP biofilm (65.0%), although a general impairing effect of OCs on biofilm formation was ruled out. Microbial colonization influenced the ability of MPs to accumulate OCs, which was higher for FB-MP. In particular, the sorption of amoxicillin was lower for all bacterial-colonized MPs than for the bare MPs. Moreover, we analysed oxidative stress production to assess the impact of MPs or MPs/OCs on biofilm development. The exposure of biofilms to OCs induced an adaptive stress response reflected in the upregulation of the katB gene and ROS production, particularly on B- and FB-MP. This study improves our understanding of MP biofilm formation, which modifies the ability of MPs to interact with some organic pollutants. However, such pollutants could hinder microbial colonization through oxidative stress production, and thus, considering the key role of biofilms in biogeochemical cycles or plastic degradation, the co-occurrence of MPs/OCs should be considered to assess the potential risks of MPs in the environment.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
The authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for supporting Project CTM2017-82424-P and the University of Alcala for supporting Project CCG20/CC-040. Diogo Videira-Quintela was supported by a FPI fellowship from the University of Alcalá and by the Margarita Salas fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Universities and EU-Next Generation.
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Carmen Fajardo: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. Sebastian Sánchez-Fortún: methodology, formal analysis, investigation, and writing—original draft. Diogo Videira-Quintela: methodology, formal analysis, investigation, and writing—original draft. Carmen Martín: formal analysis, investigation, and writing—original draft. Mar Nande: methodology and formal analysis. Ana D´ors: methodology, formal analysis, and investigation. Gonzalo Costa: conceptualization and writing—original draft. Francisco Guillén: methodology, formal analysis, and investigation. Gemma Montalvo: investigation and writing—original draft. Margarita Martin: conceptualization, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition, and writing—original draft.
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Highlights
• P. aeruginosa had a strong ability to produce biofilms on PE-MPs.
• The extent of microbial colonization varied with the characteristics of the MP.
• MP-associated biofilms influenced the adsorption of environmental pollutants.
• Exposure of biofilms to environmental pollutants increased oxidative stress.
• Biofilm is an effective antioxidant defence for bacteria.
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Fajardo, C., Sánchez-Fortún, S., Videira-Quintela, D. et al. Biofilm formation on polyethylene microplastics and their role as transfer vector of emerging organic pollutants. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 84462–84473 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28278-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28278-2