Investigating the impact of microplastics on the soil and gut microbiome and its cumulative effects on animal health

Plastic pollution is a global issue and rapidly emerging as a crisis for both environmental and human health. Exposure to microplastics impacts every level of the food chain with microplastics ingestion causing alteration of feeding activity, decreased food assimilation, stunted animal growth with negative impacts on fertility and reproduction. Microbiota perturbation by microplastics is an increasing concern with wider reaching impacts on the health of wildlife, livestock, and humans. Microplastics are ubiquitously found in the environment, and they actively influence microbial communities of the soil and the gut of animals. Soil microbial communities form intricate relationships with plants and soil organisms, and they are crucial for nutrient cycling and soil fertility. Perturbation of the gut microbiota by microplastics ingestion is an increasing concern with direct impacts on the health of wildlife, livestock and humans. Currently there is limited information on how microplastics interact with different microbial species and how bacteria-microplastics complexes influence animal and human health.
Project aim: to fill an important gap in understanding interactions between the environmental microplastic pollutants and microbial communities of the soil and of the gut of agriculturally important animal species and humans.
The project will use various experimental systems, including gut models and the in vivo nematode model Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as in soil investigation of microplastics-microbiota and soil organism interactions. The bacteria consuming Caenorhabditis elegans possesses a high level of conservation of tissue and cellular function and behavioural responses with higher eukaryotes including humans. Therefore, along with other in vitro models utilized in this project, it provides an advantageous model for exploring the soil and gut microbiota disturbance by microplastics. The main goal is to develop understanding how microplastics can impact the composition, dynamics, dispersal and activity of bacteria communities of microhabitats with established roles in soil fertility and animal health.
This research will contribute to fill the gaps in high-level research informed skills that are required to adopt novel, innovation-led strategies.