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Review
. 2023 Mar 31;9(4):e15104.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15104. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Microplastics and their interactions with microbiota

Ali Parsaeimehr  1 , Cassandra M Miller  1 , Gulnihal Ozbay  1
Affiliations
Review

Microplastics and their interactions with microbiota

Ali Parsaeimehr et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

As a new pollutant, Microplastics (MPs) are globally known for their negative impacts on different ecosystems and living organisms. MPs are easily taken up by the ecosystem in a variety of organisms due to their small size, and cause immunological, neurological, and respiratory diseases in the impacted organism. Moreover, in the impacted environments, MPs can release toxic additives and act as a vector and scaffold for colonization and transportation of specific microbes and lead to imbalances in microbiota and the biogeochemical and nutrients dynamic. To address the concerns on controlling the MPs pollution on the microbiota and ecosystem, the microbial biodegradation of MPs can be potentially considered as an effective environment friendly approach. The objectives of the presented paper are to provide information on the toxicological effects of MPs on microbiota, to discuss the negative impacts of microbial colonization of MPs, and to introduce the microbes with biodegradation ability of MPs.

Keywords: Actinobacteria; Biodegradation; Microbiota; Microplastics; Toxicological effects.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Impacts of plastic contamination in different settings. Note: Plastic contamination is a broad umbrella term used for the accumulation of plastic particles as well as plastic objects that adversely affect many organisms and their habitat. These plastics can be categorized by size into micro-, meso-, or macro debris pollution.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Microbial degradation of Microplastics. Note: Several variables influence the microbial decomposition of microplastics/plastics. There are two types: variables linked to microorganism development and factors connected to MP properties and the external environment.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The General Mechanism of microbial degradation of MPs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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