Caracterización de la diversidad bacteriana en microplásticos del río Cutuchi utilizando metabarcoding 16S rRNA

Abstract

The oceans and rivers are the main repositories of microplastic pollution. Along with anthropogenic contamination from xenobiotics, these microplastics can become a source of proliferation of pathogenic bacteria with specific nutritional requirements. For this reason, this research aims to characterize the bacterial diversity on microplastics from the Cutuchi River using 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding to identify bacterial communities and predict their functional profiles. Following the Microbiology and Biotechnology research line, microplastics were created from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polystyrene (PS) to build microcosms incubated in the Cutuchi River. After the formation of biofilms, they were collected and sequenced using Illumina technology for bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that the bacterial diversity on microplastics was significantly different from that found in the sediment and water. Two predominant bacterial families were detected on the microplastics: Aeromonadaceae and Shewanellaceae, indicating a greater influence of environmental factors compared to the composition of the microplastics or the sampling point. The prediction of functional profiles suggested that microplastics can harbor bacterial communities with metabolic functions associated with biofilm formation, biosynthesis of antimicrobials, and degradation of xenobiotics. These findings position microplastics as sources of pathogen proliferation, potentially capable of biosynthesizing antimicrobials and degrading xenobiotic compounds, demonstrating the danger of microplastics as an emerging environmental contaminant.