TY  - JOUR
A1  - Arias-Andres, Maria
A1  - Kluemper, Uli
A1  - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor
A1  - Grossart, Hans-Peter
T1  - Microplastic pollution increases gene exchange in aquatic ecosystems
JF  - Environmental pollution
N2  - Pollution by microplastics in aquatic ecosystems is accumulating at an unprecedented scale, emerging as a new surface for biofilm formation and gene exchange. In this study, we determined the permissiveness of aquatic bacteria towards a model antibiotic resistance plasmid, comparing communities that form biofilms on microplastics vs. those that are free-living. We used an exogenous and red-fluorescent E. coli donor strain to introduce the green-fluorescent broad-host-range plasmid pKJKS which encodes for trimethoprim resistance. We demonstrate an increased frequency of plasmid transfer in bacteria associated with microplastics compared to bacteria that are free-living or in natural aggregates. Moreover, comparison of communities grown on polycarbonate filters showed that increased gene exchange occurs in a broad range of phylogenetically-diverse bacteria. Our results indicate horizontal gene transfer in this habitat could distinctly affect the ecology of aquatic microbial communities on a global scale. The spread of antibiotic resistance through microplastics could also have profound consequences for the evolution of aquatic bacteria and poses a neglected hazard for human health.
KW  - Microplastics
KW  - Aquatic ecosystems
KW  - Biofilm
KW  - Horizontal gene transfer
KW  - Antibiotic resistance
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.058
SN  - 0269-7491
SN  - 1873-6424
VL  - 237
SP  - 253
EP  - 261
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -