Abstract:
Microplastics are emerging sources of environmental pollutants that are increasingly of concern because of their harmful impacts on aquatic life and thereby humans. Their accumulation in the environment is in direct proportion to global plastic production; their being nondegradable, recalcitrant and of a persistent nature creates an urgent need to address this issue on a global scale. Recent reports have demonstrated the presence of microplastics in marine life, and directly becoming a part of the food chain when seafood is ingested by humans. The repercussions of these studies point to an even larger scale presence of microplastics across varied habitats, which are yet to be sampled. Bioremediation, using various microorganisms such as bacteria, algae and fungi, alone or as consortia or in biofilm form can be used as an effective remediation tool. Genetically modified microorganisms for focused removal of microplastics and metagenomics studies, providing taxonomic details of uncultured organisms, are also expected to provide an additional catalogue of technologies in this field. This review offers a comprehensive overview of microplastic sources, existing technologies for treating microplastics and an in-depth analysis of bioremediation mechanisms, its components, and the results from various studies which provide sufficient clues as to the directions to be chosen to address microplastics pollution and can facilitate and instruct researchers to further investigate the more practical approaches and create new and innovative strategies for advanced remediation of microplastic in the future.
摘要:
微塑料是环境污染物的新兴来源,由于它们对水生生物以及人类的有害影响,它们越来越受到关注。它们在环境中的积累与全球塑料生产成正比;它们不可降解,顽固而持久的性质迫切需要在全球范围内解决这一问题。最近的报道表明,海洋生物中存在微塑料,当海鲜被人类摄入时,直接成为食物链的一部分。这些研究的影响表明,在不同的栖息地中,微塑料的存在规模更大,还有待采样。生物修复,利用各种微生物,如细菌,藻类和真菌,单独或作为聚生体或以生物膜形式可用作有效的修复工具。转基因微生物用于集中去除微塑料和宏基因组学研究,提供未培养生物的分类细节,预计还将提供该领域的额外技术目录。这篇评论提供了微塑料来源的全面概述,处理微塑料的现有技术和对生物修复机制的深入分析,其组成部分,各种研究的结果为解决微塑料污染的选择方向提供了足够的线索,可以促进和指导研究人员进一步研究更实用的方法,并为未来微塑料的先进修复创造新的创新策略。