Microbial Magic: Unlocking the Rubik's Cube of Plastic Ecology
📢 Exciting Announcement! 📢
Delighted to share our latest publication in Microbiome! 🎉 Don't miss out on the novel insights into the functioning of the microbiome on marine plastic debris! 🌊 New perspectives to tackle the challenges of plastic pollution! ♻️
In this article, we uncovered the crucial roles and activities of bacteria living on plastic debris - far beyond the taxonomy - including hydrocarbon degradation, enzymes involved in plastic breakdown as well as key metabolic pathways, toxin-associated proteins, stress-response proteins and intercommunity interactions (known as quorum sensing). The research also identifies rare and understudied bacteria, that could assist in plastic biodegradation, offering new insights for combating global plastic pollution. This complex genotype-phenotype linkages study unravel novel insights into the microbial dynamic of this specific ecosystem that is referred to as “plastisphere”.
For the first time, we demonstrate the predominance and activity of hydrocarbonoclastic genera (Psychrobacter, Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas) within a primarily heterotrophic plastisphere. Correspondingly, oxidative phosphorylation, the citrate cycle, and carbohydrate metabolism were the dominant pathways expressed. Quorum sensing and toxin-associated proteins of Streptomyces were indicative of inter-community interactions. Stress response proteins expressed by Psychrobacter, Planococcus and Pseudoalteromonas and proteins mediating xenobiotics degradation in Psychrobacter and Pseudoalteromonas suggested phenotypic adaptations to the toxic chemical microenvironment of the plastisphere. Interestingly, a targeted search strategy identified plastic biodegradation enzymes, including polyamidase, hydrolase, and depolymerase, expressed by rare taxa. The expression of virulence factors and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance suggested pathogenic genera were active, despite representing a minor component of the plastisphere community.
While our study has unveiled exciting new evidence of distinct plastipshere functioning in different climates and the eventual degradation of plastics in situ, it underscores the necessity for further research to determine the function of microorganisms colonising marine plastic pollution across larger geographic areas.
©Sabine Matallana-Surget
📚 Title: "Novel functional insights into the microbiome inhabiting marine plastic debris: Critical considerations to counteract the challenges of thin biofilms using multi-omics and comparative metaproteomics."
👩🔬 Authors: Lauren Messer, Charlotte Lee, Ruddy Wattiez & Sabine Matallana-Surget
🔍 Read the article here: https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-024-01751-x
🎥 Watch our 1-minute video below, for a summary of the main take-home messages
