by prof. dr. sc. Karolina Vrandečić
The findings from both metagenomic and microscopic analyses offered complementary evidence showing that the terrestrial plastisphere provides a favourable ecological environment for various fungal and bacterial species. Some fungal and bacterial genera are potentially harmful to human health (Neu et al. 2018), while other groups include significant plant and animal pathogens, which contribute to the core mycobiome of the plastisphere (Gkoutselis et al. 2021).
Analysis of plastic debris revealed that various fungal organisms colonise plastic surfaces. The plastisphere contained fungal propagules and structures of filamentous fungi, including vegetative and reproductive hyphae. Plastic particles from topsoil contain from 34 to 127 distinct fungal operational taxonomic units within a single plastic sample. Ascomycota dominated the plastisphere with 84% of fungal reads recovered from plastic assigned to this phylum, followed by Basidiomycota, unassigned fungi, Chytridiomycota and Glomeromycota (Gkoutselis et al., 2021). Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria alternata, and Didymella glomerata are well-known soil-born pathogens found on plastic particles. Synthetic polymeric materials that come into contact with drinking water release notable quantities of organic carbon (Stern and Lagos 2008). Some of this organic carbon is biodegradable, providing microorganisms with an important source of usable organic carbon, encouraging microbial growth, supporting biofilm development, and affecting the structure of the microbial community.
- Stern BR, Lagos G. Are there health risks from the migration of chemical substances from plastic pipes into drinking water? A review. Hum. Ecol. Risk Assess. Int. J. 2008;14:753–779. doi: 10.1080/10807030802235219. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- Neu L, Bänziger C, Proctor CR, Zhang Y, Liu WT, Hammes F. Ugly ducklings-the dark side of plastic materials in contact with potable water. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2018 Mar 27;4:7. doi: 10.1038/s41522-018-0050-9. PMID: 29619241; PMCID: PMC5869678.
- Gkoutselis, G., Rohrbach, S., Harjes, J. et al. Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems. Sci Rep 11, 13214 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92405-7
