The Terrestrial Plastisphere: Diversity and Polymer-Colonizing Potential of Plastic-Associated Microbial Communities in Soil.

ABSTRACT: The concept of a 'plastisphere microbial community' arose from research on aquatic plastic debris, while the effect of plastics on microbial communities in soils remains poorly understood. Therefore, we examined the inhabiting microbial communities of two plastic debris ecosystems with regard to their diversity and composition relative to plastic-free soils from the same area using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Furthermore, we studied the plastic-colonizing potential of bacteria originating from both study sites as a measure of surface adhesion to UV-weathered polyethylene (PE) using high-magnification field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The high plastic content of the soils was associated with a reduced alpha diversity and a significantly different structure of the microb

SUBMITTER: MacLean J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8465064 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature