“…Hence, we hypothesised that the microbiome (i.e., transient or already established community) could help to buffer the isopod host against the negative effects of MPs through the ability to degrade and metabolise the organic pollutants (Claus et al, 2016). In general, the bacterial community of both (donor) adults and juveniles was dominated by bacterial phyla Proteobacteria , Actinomycetota , Bacillota, Bacteroidota, and Tenericutes , that also dominate in other terrestrial and aquatic isopods (Bredon et al, 2020; Dittmer et al, 2016; Horvathova et al, 2016; Horváthová et al, 2019; Lafuente et al, 2023; Liao et al, 2023; Oliveira et al, 2021). The most abundant taxa were members of Dermabacteraceae ( Actinomycetota), Micrococcaceae (Actinomycetota), Flavobacteriaceae (Bacteroidota), Xanthomonadaceae (Proteobacteria), Pseudomonaceae (Proteobacteria), which have been shown to contribute to the lignocellulose degradation in diverse isopods including A. aquaticus (Bredon et al, 2020; Delhoumi et al, 2020).…”