ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2018
Colonization of Non-biodegradable and Biodegradable Plastics by Marine Microorganisms.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 332 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microplastic-Bacteria Interactions: Toxicity, Colonisation, Degradation and Prospects.Environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- The plastisphere: not a unique biofilm but a unifying concept for the interdisciplinary plastic biofilm research community.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- A particle-resolved framework for quantifying microbial colonization and vector risk on environmental microplastics.Eco-Environment & Health · 2026Article
- Living Hydrogels: Harnessing Microorganism-Material Synergy for Next-Generation Therapeutics.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Toward Optimizing Microplastic Transport Models through Biofouling Experiments.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Microbial diversity and potential pathogens associated with the plastisphere on beaches of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2026Article
- Bioplastic biodegradability shapes microbial communities in a coastal brackish environment.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Comparative functional profiles of microbial communities on drifting microplastics and volcanic pumice.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Biodegradation of PHBV-based biocomposites in two different marine environments of the Mediterranean Sea.Biodegradation · 2025Article
- Insights into Microbial Enzymatic Biodegradation of Plastics and Microplastics: Technological Updates.ACS environmental Au · 2025Review
- The Effect of Larval Exposure to Plastic Pollution on the Gut Microbiota of the Major Malaria Vector Anopheles arabiensis Patton (Diptera: Culicidae).Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Microbial communities associated with plastic fishing nets: diversity, potentially pathogenic and hydrocarbon degrading bacteria.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Microplastic biofilms as potential hotspots for plastic biodegradation and nitrogen cycling: a metagenomic perspective.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Mission Tara Microplastics: a holistic set of protocols and data resources for the field investigation of plastic pollution along the land-sea continuum in Europe.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2025Article
- Decoding Microbial Plastic Colonisation: Multi-Omic Insights Into the Fast-Evolving Dynamics of Early-Stage Biofilms.Proteomics · 2025Article
- Zooming in the plastisphere: the ecological interface for phytoplankton-plastic interactions in aquatic ecosystems.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- The wheel of time: The environmental dance of aged micro- and nanoplastics and their biological resonance.Eco-Environment & Health · 2025Review
- Environmental Health and Safety Implications of the Interplay Between Microplastics and the Residing Biofilm.Environment & health (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Review
- Widespread distribution of bacteria containing PETases with a functional motif across global oceans.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Microplastics and antibiotic resistance genes as rising threats: Their interaction represents an urgent environmental concern.Current research in microbial sciences · 2025Review
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plastics are ubiquitous in the oceans and constitute suitable matrices for bacterial attachment and growth. Understanding biofouling mechanisms is a key issue to assessing the ecological impacts and fate of plastics in marine environment. In this study, we investigated the different steps of plastic colonization of polyolefin-based plastics, on the first one hand, including conventional low-density polyethylene (PE), additivated PE with pro-oxidant (OXO), and artificially aged OXO (AA-OXO); and of a polyester, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), on the other hand. We combined measurements of physical surface properties of polymers (hydrophobicity and roughness) with microbiological characterization of the biofilm (cell counts, taxonomic composition, and heterotrophic activity) using a wide range of techniques, with some of them used for the first time on plastics. Our experimental setup using aquariums with natural circulating seawater during 6 weeks allowed us to characterize the successive phases of primo-colonization, growing, and maturation of the biofilms. We highlighted different trends between polymer types with distinct surface properties and composition, the biodegradable AA-OXO and PHBV presenting higher colonization by active and specific bacteria compared to non-biodegradable polymers (PE and OXO). Succession of bacterial population occurred during the three colonization phases, with hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria being highly abundant on all plastic types. This study brings original data that provide new insights on the colonization of non-biodegradable and biodegradable polymers by marine microorganisms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.