Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 237, Issue -, Pages 253-261Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.058
Keywords
Microplastics; Aquatic ecosystems; Biofilm; Horizontal gene transfer; Antibiotic resistance
Categories
Funding
- Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica
- Leibniz SAW project MikrOMIK
- MRC/BBSRC [MR/N007174/1]
- European Union [751699]
- Marie Curie Actions (MSCA) [751699] Funding Source: Marie Curie Actions (MSCA)
- MRC [MR/N007174/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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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. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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