Yuanxiang Jin, Jizhou Xia, Zihong Pan, Jiajing Yang, Wenchao Wang, Zhengwei Fu

Environmental Pollution, Volume 235, 2018, Pages 322-329, ISSN 0269-7491,

Abstract:

Microplastic (MP) are environmental pollutants and have the
potential to cause varying degrees of aquatic toxicity. In this study,
the effects on gut microbiota of adult male zebrafish exposed for 14
days to 100 and 1000 μg/L of two sizes of polystyrene MP were evaluated.
Both 0.5 and 50 μm-diameter spherical polystyrene MP increased the
volume of mucus in the gut at a concentration of 1000 μg/L (about
1.456 × 1010 particles/L for 0.5 μm and 1.456 × 104 particles/L for
50 μm). At the phylum level, the abundance of Bacteroidetes and
Proteobacteria decreased significantly and the abundance of Firmicutes
increased significantly in the gut after 14-day exposure to 1000 μg/L of
both sizes of polystyrene MP. In addition, high throughput sequencing of
the 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 region revealed a significant change in the
richness and diversity of microbiota in the gut of polystyrene
MP-exposed zebrafish. A more in depth analysis, at the genus level,
revealed that a total of 29 gut microbes identified by operational
taxonomic unit (OTU) analysis were significantly changed in both 0.5 and
50 μm-diameter polystyrene MP-treated groups. Moreover, it was observed
that 0.5 μm polystyrene MP not only increased mRNA levels of IL1α, IL1β
and IFN but also their protein levels in the gut, indicating that
inflammation occurred after polystyrene MP exposure. Our findings
suggest that polystyrene MP could induce microbiota dysbiosis and
inflammation in the gut of adult zebrafish.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q4N4madUKJasGvOfzEK4nyvPVOv38M-i

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.12.088.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117315464)