Unveiling marine plastic degraders through DNA-stable isotope probing
Plastic biodegradation in natural environments is performed by the microbial biofilm living on its surface. This study identifies for the first time plastic degraders in marine environment, by using stable isotope tracers. Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) biodegradation was proved by monitoring microbial cell growth (via scanning electron microscopy and flow cytometry) and activities (via continuous oxygen consumption measurements and <sup>3</sup>H-leucine incorporation for protein synthesis) during 90 days. We successfully synthetized <sup>13</sup>C-labeled PHB and conducted DNA-stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) experiments over different time points, which permitted the first description of key PHB degraders belonging to Marinobacter sp. and Cellvibrionaceae together with Glaciecola sp., Pseudoalteromonas sp., Celeribacter sp. and Alteromonas sp. Overall, SIP labeling combined with metabarcoding proved to be a useful tool for discovering and characterizing active plastic degraders from complex marine communities.
Authors
- Pierre Lemechko
- Alexandra ter Halle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7065-2272)
- Aurélie Cébron
- Justine Jacquin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8230-3277)
- Valérie Barbe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8162-3343)
- Marion Hingant
- Charlène Odobel
- Jean‐François Ghiglione (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7475-2262)
- B. Eyheraguibel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0159-0984)
- Christian Picq
- Stéphane Bruzaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4576-7681)
- Tiffany Thomas
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR)
- Université de Bretagne Occidentale (FR)
- Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR)
- Université Clermont Auvergne (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Genoscope (FR)
- Sigma Clermont (FR)
- Institut de Recherche Dupuy de Lôme (FR)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand (FR)
- Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Environnements Continentaux (FR)
- Laboratoire d'Océanographie Microbienne (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Hazardous Materials
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137729
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.01
Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique