Effects and mechanism of microplastics on abundance and transfer of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment - A critical review

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are emerging pollutants that are widely present in the environment, and are affected by microplastics (MPs). The coexistence of MPs and ARGs enhances their abundance and transmission ability, thereby increasing their environmental hazard. This study summarized the effects of MPs on the abundance and transmission of ARGs. First, the effects of MPs on ARGs in aquatic, terrestrial, atmospheric, and animal intestinal environments were analyzed. Furthermore, factors that affect the enrichment and transfer ability of MPs, including MPs properties, human activities, environmental factors, and other pollutants, were discussed. Previous studies mainly focused on the abundance changes, propagation and diffusion of ARGs on MPs, however, the possible mechanism of these changes on ARGs caused by MPs has not been fully studied, which also leads to many explanations that are not appropriate. Therefore, in the fourth section, the detailed mechanism of MPs on abundance and transfer of ARGs is systematically discussed. As the core innovation in this article, it fills the gap that has been to be supplemented in recent years. Finally, the research challenges and prospects of the effects of MPs on the abundance and spread of ARGs are proposed in the hope that this review will be helpful to better understand the environmental risks and mechanisms of MPs on ARGs.

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Keywords:

• Microplastics
• antibiotic resistance genes
• bacteria
• abundance
• biofilm

HANDLING EDITOR:

• Bing-Jie Ni

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [numbers 42007228, 31971503, U1806216]; [Program for Scientific Research Innovation Team in Colleges and Universities of Shandong Province] under Grant [number 2022KJ182]; [the National Key R&D Program of China] under Grant [number 2023YFC3709002]; [the Key Research and Development Program of Tianjin] under Grant [number 23YFXTHZ00170], and [111 program, Ministry of Education, China] under Grant [number B17025].