TY - JOUR A1 - MacLean, J. A1 - Mayanna, S. A1 - Benning, L. G. A1 - Horn, F. A1 - Bartholomäus, A. A1 - Wiesner, Yosri A1 - Wagner, D. A1 - Liebner, S. T1 - The terrestrial plastisphere: Diversity and polymer-colonizing potential of plastic-associated microbial communities in soil JF - Microorganisms N2 - The concept of a ‘plastisphere microbial community’ arose from research on aquatic plastic debris, while the effect of plastics on microbial communities in soils remains poorly understood. Therefore, we examined the inhabiting microbial communities of two plastic debris ecosystems with regard to their diversity and composition relative to plastic-free soils from the same area using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Furthermore, we studied the plastic-colonizing potential of bacteria originating from both study sites as a measure of surface adhesion to UV-weathered polyethylene (PE) using high-magnification field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The high plastic content of the soils was associated with a reduced alpha diversity and a significantly different structure of the microbial communities. The presence of plastic debris in soils did not specifically enrich bacteria known to degrade plastic, as suggested by earlier studies, but rather shifted the microbial community towards highly abundant autotrophic bacteria potentially tolerant to hydrophobic environments and known to be important for biocrust formation. The bacterial inoculates from both sites formed dense biofilms on the surface and in micrometer-scale surface cracks of the UV-weathered PE chips after 100 days of in vitro incubation with visible threadlike EPS structures and cross-connections enabling surface adhesion. High-resolution FESEM imaging further indicates that the microbial colonization catalyzed some of the surface degradation of PE. In essence, this study suggests the concept of a ‘terrestrial plastisphere’ as a diverse consortium of microorganisms including autotrophs and other pioneering species paving the way for those members of the consortium that may eventually break down the plastic compounds. KW - Soil microbial community KW - Polyethylene colonization KW - Plastic pollution PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-542790 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9091876 VL - 9 IS - 9 SP - 1 EP - 19 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-54279 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mazumdar, Tilomatta A1 - Bartholomäus, A. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter ED - Rokas, A. T1 - Draft Genome of the Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium robertsii DSM 1490 JF - MIcrobiology Resource Announcements N2 - Metarhizium robertsii DSM 1490 is a generalist entomopathogenic fungus. The mechanisms of pathogenesis of such fungi in insects like termites are not completely understood. Here, we report the draft genome sequence, as sequenced on the Oxford Nanopore platform. The genome has a GC% of 47.82 and a size of 45,688,865 bp KW - Draft Genome KW - Entomopathogenic Fungus KW - Metarhizium robertsii DSM 1490 KW - Mechanisms of pathogenesis KW - Infecting a number of insects, KW - Close proximity to colonies PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-573186 DO - https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.01267-22 SN - 2576-098X VL - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 2 PB - ASM Journals CY - Nashville, USA AN - OPUS4-57318 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -