Diversity and Activity of Communities Inhabiting Plastic Debris in the North Pacific Gyre

Bryant, Jessica A.; Clemente, Tara M.; Viviani, Donn A.; Fong, Allison A.; Thomas, Kimberley Anh; Kemp, Paul F.; Karl, David M.; White, Angelicque E.; DeLong, Edward F.

doi:10.1128/msystems.00024-16

Cited by 342 publications

(359 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…The same could apply for many saprotrophic fungi: once the early colonizers are established, secondary colonizers start to develop a diverse community living in association with other organisms and living off their exudates and organic matter. Metagenomes may identify genes and enzymes from fungi involved in these processes (Bryant et al., 2016), but due to lower biomass of fungi compared bacteria or metazoa in epiplastic, analysis of function in fungi in plastic samples may be challenging. In oceanic systems sequence reads assigned to Fungi in metagenomes only make up around 1%–2% of the total sequence reads (Morales, Biswas, Herndl, & Baltar, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula

et al. 2020

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Marine plastic pollution has a range of negative impacts for biota and the colonization of plastics in the marine environment by microorganisms may have significant ecological impacts. However, data on epiplastic organisms, particularly fungi, is still lacking for many ocean regions. To evaluate plastic associated fungi and their geographic distribution, we characterised plastics sampled from surface waters of the western South Atlantic (WSA) and Antarctic Peninsula (AP), using DNA metabarcoding of three molecular markers (ITS2, 18S rRNA V4 and V9 regions). Numerous taxa from eight fungal phyla and a total of 64 orders were detected, including groups that had not yet been described associated with plastics. There was a varied phylogenetic assemblage of predominantly known saprotrophic taxa within the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. We found a range of marine cosmopolitan genera present on plastics in both locations, i.e., Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Wallemia and a number of taxa unique to each region, as well as a high variation of taxa such as Chytridiomycota and Aphelidomycota between locations. Within these basal fungal groups we identified a number of phylogenetically novel taxa. This is the first description of fungi from the Plastisphere within the Southern Hemisphere, and highlights the need to further investigate the potential impacts of plastic associated fungi on other organisms and marine ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula

et al. 2020

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“…According to a recent review by Jacquin et al [85], plastisphere communities found in the sub-surface are dominated by photoautotrophic bacteria such as cyanobacteria with the genera Phormidium and Rivularia, while the core microbiome of the seafloor and subsurface plastisphere seems to share some taxa, such as Bacteroidetes (Flavobacteriaceae) and Proteobacteria (Rhodobacteraceae and Alcanivoraceae) [42,[86][87][88]. Plastic-attached bacteria were dominated by alphaand gamma-Proteobacteria, while seawater bacteria were dominated by alpha-Proteobacteria (mainly Pelagibacter sp.)…”

Section: Plastic Polymersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Caruso¹

2020

JMSE

104

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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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“…The spreading of fish pathogens has also recently been described [104]. Plastic-specific bacteria constitute a distinct set of microorganisms that are very different from the surrounding water [105][106][107][108], with the quantity of bacteria 500 times more elevated than in the surrounding water [109]. Human pathogens such as Vibrio cholerae and E. coli can also stick to such supports [110,111].…”

Section: Where To Survey the Emergence Of Pathogens?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanization and Waterborne Pathogen Emergence in Low-Income Countries: Where and How to Conduct Surveys?

Bastaraud

Cecchi

Handschumacher

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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A major forthcoming sanitary issue concerns the apparition and spreading of drug-resistant microorganisms, potentially threatening millions of humans. In low-income countries, polluted urban runoff and open sewage channels are major sources of microbes. These microbes join natural microbial communities in aquatic ecosystems already impacted by various chemicals, including antibiotics. These composite microbial communities must adapt to survive in such hostile conditions, sometimes promoting the selection of antibiotic-resistant microbial strains by gene transfer. The low probability of exchanges between planktonic microorganisms within the water column may be significantly improved if their contact was facilitated by particular meeting places. This could be specifically the case within biofilms that develop on the surface of the myriads of floating macroplastics increasingly polluting urban tropical surface waters. Moreover, as uncultivable bacterial strains could be involved, analyses of the microbial communities in their whole have to be performed. This means that new-omic technologies must be routinely implemented in low- and middle-income countries to detect the appearance of resistance genes in microbial ecosystems, especially when considering the new ‘plastic context.’ We summarize the related current knowledge in this short review paper to anticipate new strategies for monitoring and surveying microbial communities.

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Diversity and Activity of Communities Inhabiting Plastic Debris in the North Pacific Gyre

Cited by 342 publications

References 108 publications

Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula

Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula

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

Urbanization and Waterborne Pathogen Emergence in Low-Income Countries: Where and How to Conduct Surveys?

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