ArticlePloS one2019
The Plastisphere - Uncovering tightly attached plastic "specific" microorganisms.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Biotechnological Applications of Marine Bacteria.Biology · 2026Review
- Bacterial community colonization with minimal alteration of plastics in suboxic sediments from a marine methane seep.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- The aquatic plastisphere: ecology, pathogen dissemination and antimicrobial resistance.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The plastisphere: not a unique biofilm but a unifying concept for the interdisciplinary plastic biofilm research community.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Integrative frameworks for plastic biodegradation in insect-microbiome systems: mechanistic insights, emerging multi-omics and enzyme engineering perspectives.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- Influence of temperature and inoculum composition on standardized biodegradation tests of bioplastics in freshwater under aerobic conditions.Scientific reports · 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
- Genome mining and screening for plastic-degrading potential in marine bacteria.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2026Article
- Bioplastic biodegradability shapes microbial communities in a coastal brackish environment.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Bacterial-microplastic interaction can affect disinfection efficiency of methods routinely used in the food industry.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Microbial plastic degradation: enzymes, pathways, challenges, and perspectives.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Plastic Type and Condition Have Minimal Impact on Associated Marine Biofilm Communities.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- The Role of Omics Technology in Evaluating Plastic Pollution's Effects on Plants: A Comprehensive Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Biodegradation of Polypropylene in Presence of Chromium Mediated by Stenotrophomonas sp. and Lysinibacillus sp. Isolated from Wetland Sediments.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Microbial communities associated with plastic fishing nets: diversity, potentially pathogenic and hydrocarbon degrading bacteria.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) primary degradation products affect c-di-GMP-, cAMP-signaling, and quorum sensing (QS) inMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- From Harm to Hope: Tackling Microplastics' Perils with Recycling Innovation.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Microplastic biofilms as potential hotspots for plastic biodegradation and nitrogen cycling: a metagenomic perspective.FEMS microbiology ecology · 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
1 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
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In order to understand the degradation potential of plastics in the marine environment, microorganisms that preferentially colonize and interact with plastic surfaces, as opposed to generalists potentially colonising everything, need to be identified. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that i.) plastic "specific" microorganisms are closely attached to the polymeric surface and ii.) that specificity of plastics biofilms are rather related to members of the rare biosphere. To answer these hypotheses, a three phased experiment to stepwise uncover closely attached microbes was conducted. In Phase 1, nine chemically distinct plastic films and glass were incubated in situ for 21 months in a seawater flow through system. In Phase 2, a high-pressure water jet treatment technique was used to remove the upper biofilm layers to further, in Phase 3, enrich a plastic "specific" community. To proof whether microbes colonizing different plastics are distinct from each other and from other inert hard substrates, the bacterial communities of these different substrates were analysed using 16S rRNA gene tag sequencing. Our findings indicate that tightly attached microorganisms account to the rare biosphere and suggest the presence of plastic "specific" microorganisms/assemblages which could benefit from the given plastic properties or at least grow under limited carbon resources.
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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.