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  - 
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  -