Plastic materials and water sources actively select and shape wastewater plastispheres over time

doi:10.1007/s11783-022-1580-1

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (11) : 145 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1580-1

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Plastic materials and water sources actively select and shape wastewater plastispheres over time

Yu Xia^1,^2,³, Xuyang Zhang¹, Miao Zhang¹, Liming Chen¹, Xiaotong Tang¹, Yuhong Sun¹, Xiang Li^1,^2,³(

)

¹. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
². State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
³. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

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Abstract

● Wastewater MPs exhibited resistomes and therefore health threats.

● High density of alkB gene indicates both HDPE and PET can be utilized by microbes.

● Plastics and waters actively selected and shaped the plastispheres over time.

● A broader phylogenetic spectrum of MHET-degrading microorganisms was annotated.

The daily use of plastics presents a serious pollution issue due to their extremely slow degradation. Microplastics and the biofilm that grows on plastics (i.e., the plastisphere) are important subsets of plastic wastes. Many studies have been conducted to reveal the structures of the plastispheres, the driving factors for the formation of the plastisphere, and the ability of the plastispheres to degrade plastics in a variety of water bodies. However, the plastispheres related to wastewater are understudied. In this study, we used a microcosmic strategy to study the evolution of the plastispheres associated with microplastics (MPs) over time in wastewater. We found that plastic materials and water sources did not actively select and shape the plastispheres at an early stage, but the active selection for a unique niche of the plastisphere occurred after 14 d of growth. In addition, we confirmed that the alkB gene was densely present, and metagenomics showed some additional chemical reactions, which suggests that MPs are consumed by the microbes in the plastispheres. Additionally, metagenomics identified some metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) associated with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The identification of HDPE-associated MAGs and PET-associated MAGs further supports the notion that the selection for a unique niche of the plastisphere is driven by plastic materials and water sources (in this study, after 14 d of growth). Our discoveries bring new views on the behavior of the wastewater-associated plastisphere, especially how long it takes a wastewater plastisphere to form.

Keywords Microplastics Whole-genome metagenomic sequencing Plastisphere Plastic degradation MHETase

Corresponding Author(s): Xiang Li

Issue Date: 10 June 2022

Cite this article:

Yu Xia,Xuyang Zhang,Miao Zhang, et al. Plastic materials and water sources actively select and shape wastewater plastispheres over time[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(11): 145.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-022-1580-1
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2022/V16/I11/145

Tab.1 Parameters of effluents discharged from studied wastewater treatment plants

Tab.2 Concentrations of ARGs (gene copies/cell) in samples of the plastisphere

Fig.1 qPCR measurements of the densities of the alkB and 16S rRNA genes. The x-axis shows the groups grouped on the basis plastic materials and water sources, and the y-axis shows the densities (gene copies/mm²) of the genes. The results of the heteroscedastic student’s t test (two-tailed) are annotated. *** represents p < 0.001, and ns represents “not significant”.

Fig.2 A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree of the bacterial MHETase identified in our metagenome and reference protein sequences.

Fig.3 The clustering of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of the plastisphere on the basis of the relative abundance of amplicon 16S rRNA samples. The temporal average relative abundance (ARA) of orders (ARA > 1%) is shown in (a). The principal component analysis (PCA) of the groups grouped on the basis of the combination of plastic materials, water sources, and incubation periods is shown in (b). The PCA of the groups grouped on the basis of the combination of plastic materials and incubation periods is shown in (c), and the PCA of the groups grouped on the basis of water sources and incubation periods is shown in (d).

Fig.4 A heatmap of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of the samples of microcosmic experiments. Only the OTU number that is greater than 800 is shown, and the value shows the sample replicates in the x-axis. YC-E6 and YLA114 belong to the class Methanomicrobia. Methanomicrobia are indicated in the y-axis by the red color.

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