Microbes that digest plastic may also fuel antibiotic resistance
Plastic is cheap, versatile and is used almost anywhere from packaging and textiles to medical materials. However, unlike natural materials, plastic is not only rotten; Instead, it is divided into smaller fragments called germs (<5 mm) and nanoplastic (<1 UM).
These particles remain for decades or longer, accumulate in water bodies and attract other pollutants such as heavy metals, antibiotics and toxic chemicals. They provide adhesive surfaces where bacteria develop, and latest research indicates that even such surfaces can host microbes carrying antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). This raises the fear that plastic wastes not only drown the ecosystems, but also can help spread antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Biodegradation offers a potential way. Some germs produce enzymes that can disintegrate strong chemical bonds in plastic polymers. A famous example Petase, discovered Ideonella SakaiensisPolyethylene terefthalate (PET), a common plastic used in bottles. Nevertheless, despite such exciting discoveries, natural microbial communities with this ability are not fully understood, especially in environments where plastic pollution is constant and dense.
Such an environment extending to India and Bangladesh. The world’s largest mangrv forest and rivers fed to the Gulf of Bengal receives about three billion germs every day. With such heavy exposure, microbes in this ecosystem may have developed new ways to manage plastic wastes. At the same time, since germs can carry antibiotics and metal, the same microbes can also obtain resistance properties.
This two-sided probability-plastic deterioration plus Resistance-Hint Science Education and Research Institute (IISER) is located by scientists in Kolkata at the center of new studies. It was published FEMS Microbiology lettersIt shows that the floating bacterial community in Sundarbans has genetic tools to break down plastics and that these tools are also linked to genes for AMR and metal resistance.
Scientists have collected a liter of surface water from a branch of Sundarbans for about a year (2020-2021) from a region in Mooriganga Haliç. Water samples were filtered to capture microbial cells and DNA was extracted from these germs. Using a technique called metagenomic sequence, researchers read the genetic material of the entire microbial community.
Later, they compared DNA series with special databases. Plastic DB is used to describe plastic disruptive enzyme (PDE) genes, while other sources help to detect ARGs, metal resistance genes (MRIs) and mobile genetic elements-DNA parts allowing to move between germs.
The analysis has shown an impressive 838 hit for plastic disruptive enzymes representing the ability to move on 17 different plastic polymers. Most hit (73%) targeted synthetic plastics such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyctic acid, pet and nylon, while the rest targeted natural polymers such as polyhydroxialykanoats. The most abundant set of enzymes showed that they were a strong contamination input from Biomedical and industrial sources.
The PDEs were more abundant during monsoon. “HPB reflects the formation of PDEs and ARGs per season.
However, most importantly, it has found that microbes carrying the study of the study often carry resistance genes. For resistance to zinc resistance and aminoglycoside antibiotics, genes were particularly common among plastic degraders. A coexistence network analysis has demonstrated strong relationships between PDEs, ARGs and MRIs, which implied that the same selective pressures-plastic additives, metals and pollutants-microbial adaptation.
The findings draw a complex picture. On the one hand, the discovery of such a variety of and abundant plastic disruptive enzymes is promising. Sundarbans’ microbial community, plastic wastes adapt to cope with the flood and potentially offers natural solutions to one of the most urgent environmental difficulties in the world.
On the other hand, microbes that can disintegrate plastics are reservoirs of antibiotic and metal resistance genes. If such microbes are deliberately released or enriched in natural environments, they can contribute to the spread of resistance properties and undermine their efforts to control AMR. In fact, themselves can serve as beds where resistance genes accumulate and spread between microbes through horizontal gene transfer. This makes the application of plastic disruptive germs more complex than it first appears.
“The changing change of climate can potentially accelerate the transfer among bacteria that may result in people, potentially, Bhadur said Bhadury. “This can generally have consequences for health and public health.”
Madhurima Pattanayak is a free science writer and journalist.
Released – 31 August 2025 05:00 IST
