TY  - JOUR
A1  - Arias-Andres, Maria
A1  - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor
A1  - Grossart, Hans-Peter
T1  - Collateral effects of microplastic pollution on aquatic microorganisms
BT  - An ecological perspective
JF  - Trends in Analytical Chemistry
N2  - Microplastics (MP) provide a unique and extensive surface for microbial colonization in aquatic ecosystems. The formation of microorganism-microplastic complexes, such as biofilms, maximizes the degradation of organic matter and horizontal gene transfer. In this context, MP affect the structure and function of microbial communities, which in turn render the physical and chemical fate of MP. This new paradigm generates challenges for microbiology, ecology, and ecotoxicology. Dispersal of MP is concomitant with that of their associated microorganisms and their mobile genetic elements, including antibiotic resistance genes, islands of pathogenicity, and diverse metabolic pathways. Functional changes in aquatic microbiomes can alter carbon metabolism and food webs, with unknown consequences on higher organisms or human microbiomes and hence health. Here, we examine a variety of effects of MP pollution from the microbial ecology perspective, whose repercussions on aquatic ecosystems begin to be unraveled. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KW  - Microplastics (MP)
KW  - Biofilms
KW  - HGT
KW  - Microbial ecology
KW  - Carbon cycling
KW  - Aquatic ecosystems
KW  - Health risk assessment
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2018.11.041
SN  - 0165-9936
SN  - 1879-3142
VL  - 112
SP  - 234
EP  - 240
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -