Microbial Colonization in Marine Environments

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 1369

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Analytical Sciences and Physico-Chemistry for Environment and Materials (IPREM), UMR CNRS 5254, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Avenue de l'Université, 64013 Pau CEDEX, France
Interests: microbial diversity; biofilms; biodegradation/biodeterioration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The marine environment is the location of the installation of structures (port or offshore structures, artificial reefs), the discharge of materials (pollution), the circulation of ships, shipwrecks, and therefore the sanctuary of wrecks and their cargoes, for millennia. All these materials (cements, metals, polymers, wood, etc.) are colonized and undergo physicochemical and biological alterations. These degradations have significant economic and environmental consequences in a wide variety of areas (corrosion, pollution, historical artifacts surveys, and material durability).

The scope of this Special Issue is to highlight the more recent advances on marine bacteria colonizing materials, linked with biodeterioration/biodegradation questions. More specifically, it will focus on interactions between bacteria and materials in the marine environment.

In the field of the biodeterioration or biodegradation of materials, it is crucial not only to know who is present, but also who does what and how, in mechanisms that can be both problematic in terms of durability and beneficial in terms of resilience. While studies presenting metagenomic data describing microbial communities provide information that can be used to make predictions, they make it very difficult to test, confirm, or invalidate hypotheses about mechanisms or capacities for action. Isolating microorganisms, studying their characteristics, and being able to test them under specific conditions can provide answers that NGS data alone cannot provide, and also makes it possible to develop application processes. For this reason, studies presenting NGS data only will not be accepted. Studies presenting samples incubated in situ may be submitted. Studies presenting the description of new taxa may be submitted, provided that the type strain has been the subject of a study falling within the scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Laurent Urios
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • marine environment
  • microbial colonization
  • biodegradation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 5447 KiB  
Article
Plastic Polymers and Antibiotic Resistance in an Antarctic Environment (Ross Sea): Are We Revealing the Tip of an Iceberg?
by Gabriella Caruso, Maurizio Azzaro, Ombretta Dell’Acqua, Maria Papale, Angelina Lo Giudice and Pasqualina Laganà
Microorganisms 2024, 12(10), 2083; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12102083 - 17 Oct 2024
Viewed by 1051
Abstract
Microbial colonization of plastic polymers in Antarctic environments is an under-investigated issue. While several studies are documenting the spread of plastic pollution in the Ross Sea, whether the formation of a plastisphere (namely the complex microbial assemblage colonizing plastics) may favor the spread [...] Read more.
Microbial colonization of plastic polymers in Antarctic environments is an under-investigated issue. While several studies are documenting the spread of plastic pollution in the Ross Sea, whether the formation of a plastisphere (namely the complex microbial assemblage colonizing plastics) may favor the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in this marine environment is unknown yet. A colonization experiment was performed in this ecosystem, aiming at exploring the potential role of plastic polymers as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance. To this end, the biofilm-producing activity and the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of bacterial strains isolated from biofilms colonizing submerged polyvinylchloride and polyethylene panels were screened. The colonization experiment was carried out at two different sites of the Ross Sea, namely Road Bay and Tethys Bay. Most of bacterial isolates were able to produce biofilm; several multidrug resistances were detected in the bacterial members of biofilms associated to PVC and PE (also named as the plastisphere), as well as in the bacterial strains isolated from the surrounding water. The lowest percentage of ARB was found in the PE-associated plastisphere from the not-impacted (control) Punta Stocchino station, whereas the highest one was detected in the PVC-associated plastisphere from the Tethys Bay station. However, no selective enrichment of ARB in relation to the study sites or to either type of plastic material was observed, suggesting that resistance to antibiotics was a generalized widespread phenomenon. Resistance against to all the three classes of antibiotics assayed in this study (i.e., cell wall antibiotics, nucleic acids, and protein synthesis inhibitors) was observed. The high percentage of bacterial isolates showing resistance in remote environments like Antarctic ones, suffering increasing anthropic pressure, points out an emerging threat with a potential pathogenic risk that needs further deepening studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Colonization in Marine Environments)
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