ReviewFrontiers in microbiology2019
Microbial Ecotoxicology of Marine Plastic Debris: A Review on Colonization and Biodegradation by the "Plastisphere".
Review in Frontiers in microbiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 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.
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Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 474 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biodegradation of components from an oxidized polyethylene by aApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Biofilms on microplastics across ecological systems: Formation mechanisms, community composition, environmental impacts, and ecotoxicity.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- Temporal changes in culturable fungal community composition with their plastic degradation capacities in the marine plastisphere through mesocosm experiments.Journal of microbiology (Seoul, Korea) · 2026Article
- Plastic-Colonizing Fungi in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea: Community Structure and Physiological and Transcriptional Responses ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Metabolic adaptations of extremophiles and their applications in environmental biotechnology.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- Storage-Dependent Changes in Microplastic-Associated Recoverable Residues in Yogurt ContainingToxics · 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
- Effects of intraspecies and interspecies competition on genetic device construction and performance.mSphere · 2026Article
- From Enrichment to Fate: Transport, Transformation, and Fate of Micro- and Nanoplastics in Marine Environments.Toxics · 2026Review
- Frontiers in plastic biodegradation: unraveling the mechanisms and impacts of macro- and microplastic pollution.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- Microbial response and resistance mechanisms against diverse anthropogenic pollutants.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Exploring theFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Beyond carbon capture: bioengineering cyanobacteria as solar-driven platforms for remediation of recalcitrant human-generated waste.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Review
- Review
- Metatranscriptome profile of agricultural microbial communities enriched for plastitrophy.mLife · 2025Article
- Microbial communities associated with plastic fishing nets: diversity, potentially pathogenic and hydrocarbon degrading bacteria.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Linking the Metabolic Activity of Plastic-Degrading Fungi to Their Taxonomy and Evolution.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Plastic pollution has the potential to alter ecological and evolutionary processes in aquatic ecosystems.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Review
- Zooming in the plastisphere: the ecological interface for phytoplankton-plastic interactions in aquatic ecosystems.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- 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
37 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
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over the last decades, it has become clear that plastic pollution presents a global societal and environmental challenge given its increasing presence in the oceans. A growing literature has focused on the microbial life growing on the surfaces of these pollutants called the "plastisphere," but the general concepts of microbial ecotoxicology have only rarely been integrated. Microbial ecotoxicology deals with (i) the impact of pollutants on microbial communities and inversely (ii) how much microbes can influence their biodegradation. The goal of this review is to enlighten the growing literature of the last 15 years on microbial ecotoxicology related to plastic pollution in the oceans. First, we focus on the impact of plastic on marine microbial life and on the various functions it ensures in the ecosystems. In this part, we also discuss the driving factors influencing biofilm development on plastic surfaces and the potential role of plastic debris as vector for dispersal of harmful pathogen species. Second, we give a critical view of the extent to which marine microorganisms can participate in the decomposition of plastic in the oceans and of the relevance of current standard tests for plastic biodegradability at sea. We highlight some examples of metabolic pathways of polymer biodegradation. We conclude with several questions regarding gaps in current knowledge of plastic biodegradation by marine microorganisms and the identification of possible directions for future research.
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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.