摘要
      微塑料和细菌抗生素耐药性都引起了全世界的关注。当微塑料与携带抗生素抗性基因（ARG）的抗生素抗性细菌（ARB）共存时，ARB定植在微塑料表面，形成独特的生物膜。生物膜中的ARB和ARG密度更大，更难去除。然而，对影响微塑料生物膜形成的因素的研究有限。在本研究中，发现出现在废水处理厂中的质粒RP4能够促进微塑料的不可逆细菌定殖，假设原因是结合菌毛的表达。然后，选择潜在的偶联菌毛合成促进剂“纳米氧化铝”和抑制剂“游离亚硝酸”（FNA）来验证这一假设。同时，当RP4存在时，纳米氧化铝促进细菌定植，FNA抑制细菌定植。结合基因表达和ATP分析结果，证实了这一假设，并且RP4对细菌定殖的机制主要与结合菌毛蛋白合成和细胞内ATP有关。本研究报道了质粒RP4、纳米氧化铝和FNA对微塑料生物膜形成的影响，对其他探索微塑料生物薄膜的研究人员具有一定的参考价值。
Abstract
Both microplastic and bacterial antibiotic resistance have attracted attention worldwide. When microplastics coexist with antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), which carry antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), ARB colonize the surface of microplastics, and a unique biofilm is formed. The ARB and ARGs in biofilms are denser and more difficult to remove. However, studies on the factors influencing the formation of microplastic biofilms are limited. In this study, plasmid RP4, which appeared in wastewater treatment plants, was found to be able to promote irreversible bacterial colonization of microplastics, and the hypothetical reason was conjugative pili expression. Then, the potential conjugative pili synthesis promoter “nanoalumina” and inhibitor “free nitrous acid” (FNA) were selected to test this hypothesis. Simultaneously, nanoalumina promoted and FNA inhibited bacterial colonization when RP4 existed. Combined with the gene expression and ATP analysis results, this hypothesis was confirmed, and the mechanism of RP4 on bacterial colonization was related mainly to conjugative pili protein synthesis and intracellular ATP. In this study, the effects of plasmid RP4, nanoalumina, and FNA on the formation of microplastic biofilms were reported, which has a certain reference value for other researchers exploring microplastic biofilms.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030438942200231X