Biodegradation of aged polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS) microplastics by yellow mealworms (Tenebrio molitor larvae).

Globally, over 287 million tons of plastic are disposed in landfills, rivers, and oceans or are burned every year. The results are devastating to our ecosystems, wildlife and human health. One promising remedy is the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor larvae), which has proved capable of degrading microplastics (MPs). This paper presents a new investigation into the biodegradation of aged polyethylene (PE) film and polystyrene (PS) foam by the Tenebrio molitor larvae. After a 35 - day feeding period, both pristine and aged MPs can be consumed by larvae. Even with some inhibitions in larvae growth due to the limited nutrient supply of aged MPs, when compared with pristine MPs, the aged MPs were depolymerized more efficiently in gut microbiota based on gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. With the change in surface chemical properties, the metabolic intermediates of aged MPs contained more oxygen-containing functional groups and shortened long-chain alkane, which was confirmed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). High-throughput sequencing revealed that the richness and diversity of gut microbes were restricted in the MPs-fed group. Although MPs had a negative effect on the relative abundance of the two dominant bacteria Enterococcaceae and Lactobacillaceae, the aged MPs may promote the relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae and Streptococcaceae. Redundancy analysis (RDA) further verified that the aged MPs are effectively biodegraded by yellow mealworm. This work provides new insights into insect-mediated mechanisms of aged MP degradation and promising strategies for MP sustainable and efficient solutions.

The GTPase activity and isoprenylation of Swine GBP1 are critical for inhibiting the production of Japanese Encephalitis Virus.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a flavivirus that cause severe neurological deficits. The guanylate-binding protein 1 (GBP1) gene is an interferon-stimulated gene and exerts antiviral functions on many RNA and DNA viruses via diverse mechanisms, however, the roles and the action modes of GBP1 in the antiviral effect on the production of JEV RNA and infectious virions remain to be clarified. In this study, we found that the RNA levels of swine GBP1 (sGBP1) in PK15 cells were up-regulated at the late stage of JEV infection. The overexpression of sGBP1 significantly inhibited the production of JEV while the knockdown of sGBP1 promoted the production of JEV. The GTPase activity and isoprenylation of sGBP1 both are critical for anti-JEV activity. The GTPase activity of sGBP1 is responsible for inhibiting the production of JEV genomic RNA. The isoprenylation of sGBP1 inhibited the expression and cleavage of JEV prM to decrease the yields of infectious virions, which may be associated with the interaction between sGBP1 and cellular proprotein convertase furin. Taken together, the study dissected the action modes of sGBP1with potent anti-JEV activity in more details.

Effects of humic acids on the adsorption of Pb(II) ions onto biofilm-developed microplastics in aqueous ecosystems.

Microplastics (MPs), as emerging contaminants can behave as carriers for heavy metals in the water environments. Although the adsorption performance of heavy metals on MPs has been widely investigated, the effects of humic acids (HA) on the adsorption have seldom been explored. The authors were compared the Pb(II) adsorption onto biofilm-developed polyvinyl chloride (Bio-PVC) MPs with Pb(II) adsorption onto virgin PVC MPs (V-PVC), and explored the relationship between surface characteristics and the adsorption properties in the coexistence of HA. Our results showed that due to a larger specific surface area and more oxygen containing groups, Bio-PVC had a larger adsorption capability with a value of 3.57 mg/g than original ones (1.85 mg/g) due to its huge specific surface area and more oxygen containing groups. Microbial community analysis showed that the predominate bacteria in biofilms as Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. Notably, the Pb(II) adsorption onto the V-PVC surfaces was increased, but the adsorption capacities of Pb(II) on Bio-PVC were suppressed with increasing HA. With the co-existence of HA, the increasing complexation and electrostatic attraction had attributed to the increased Pb(II) adsorption ability on V-PVC. Except for its competitive ability, HA has a shield effect which decreases the sorption sites on Bio-PVC. Overall, our findings provide a better understanding of the HA effect on the adsorption mechanism of heavy metals onto MPs in aquatic ecosystems.

Toxicity effects of microplastics and nanoplastics with cadmium on the alga Microcystis aeruginosa.

The extensive spread of microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in the aquatic environment has attracted widespread attention. The toxicity of cadmium (Cd) combined with microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) toward freshwater algae Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) was investigated to evaluate the environmental behavior of the Cd complexation in fresh water. Cd alone has the highest toxicity to algae. Both MPs and NPs also have a negative effect on the growth of algae as individual components due to their adsorption of nutrients and disruption of the alga's activity in a single MPs/NPs system. Compared with the single system, the toxicity of compound pollution including MPs + Cd and NPs + Cd becomes stronger, which presents a synergistic effect. In the presence of NPs, more extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) appeared, which helped to reduce the toxic effect on the algal cells. Moreover, MPs/NPs + Cd stimulate the production of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) under different treatments. Overall, the aquatic environmental assessment shows potentially elevated risks associated with combined MPs/NPs with Cd, which should be considered.

An improved luciferase immunosorbent assay for ultrasensitive detection of antibodies against African swine fever virus.

African swine fever (ASF), caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV), is a fatal infectious disease of pigs and causes great socioeconomic losses globally. The reliable diagnostic method is critical for prevention and control of the disease. In this study, an improved Luciferase immunosorbent assay (LISA) for detecting ASF was developed using the cell lysates containing ASFV p35 protein fused with a reporter Nano-luciferase (p35-Luc protein). The improved method avoids the complicate procedures of immobilizing the serum samples with protein G in the normal LISA method, and replaced by directly coating the serum samples with carbonate buffer, therefore reduces the productive cost and simplifies the operation procedures. The p35-Luc LISA exhibited high specificity for anti-ASFV sera while no cross-reactions with the sera against other swine viruses. The detection limit of the p35-Luc LISA was shown to be at least four times higher than that of the p35 based indirect ELISA established in our lab. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed the 96.36% relative specificity and 96.97% relative sensitivity of the p35-Luc LISA with the cutoff values of 3.55 as compared to the commercial Ingezim p72-ELISA kit. Furthermore, a total of 248 serum samples were tested by both the p35-Luc LISA and commercial Ingezim p72-ELISA kit, and there was a high degree of agreement (97.6%, kappa = 0.9753) in the performance of the two assays. Collectively, the improved LISA based on the p35-Luc protein could be used as a rapid, ultrasensitive, cost-effective and reliable diagnostic tool for serological survey of ASF in pig farms.

The toxicity of virgin and UV-aged PVC microplastics on the growth of freshwater algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Although more attention has been paid to plastic pollution in marine ecosystems, research on the influence of plastic in freshwater ecosystems remains limited. To help fill this information gap, this article represents an investigation of the effects of virgin polyvinyl chloride (v-PVC) microplastics (MPs) and UV-aged polyvinyl chloride (a-PVC) MPs on the growth and chlorophyll content of the freshwater algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (C. reinhardtii) at different periods (0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h). The results suggest that both virgin and aged PVC MPs have negative effects on the growth of C. reinhardtii in the range of 10 mg/L to 200 mg/L, which leads to the reduction of chlorophyll-a level in the cells. Furthermore, a-PVC MPs were more toxic than v-PVC MPs, as shown by the a-PVC MPs' lower EC50 values after 96 h (63.66 mg/L for a-PVC MPs and 104.93 mg/L for v-PVC MPs). The inhibition effect of both kinds of PVC was also testified by the enhancement of enzymatic activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in algae. Meanwhile, a-PVC MPs obviously had a higher toxicity than v-PVC MPs. The aging process that affected the surface characteristics of a-PVC was identified using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Zetasizer. The carbonyl groups formed on the surface and the increased zeta potential of the a-PVC MPs affected the interaction between the microplastics and the algae, which increased the toxicity of aged microplastics. The research results presented here provide more evidence of the risks microplastics bring into the freshwater ecosystem.

The adsorption behavior of metals in aqueous solution by microplastics effected by UV radiation.

Microplastics are considered as the carrier to heavy metals in the environment. But the sorption ability of microplastics influenced by photo-aging is remaining unclear. In the present study, the sorption of two kinds of metal ions (Cu2+ and Zn2+) in the aqueous solution by both the virgin and aged microplastics was investigated. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) debris, one of the typical kinds of microplastics was chosen in this study. Photo-aging of microplastics in environment was simulated using UV radiation in the laboratory. Date analysis indicated that the aged microplastics had higher adsorption capacity of heavy metals than original ones. This could be related to the increased surface area and oxygen containing function appeared in the surface of aged microplastics after UV radiation. When prolonging the time of radiation, the enhanced adsorption capacities of microplastics appeared for Cu2+ and Zn2+. These results showed a great interaction between the aging degree of plastics and sorption capacity to heavy metals. Meanwhile, external conditions including temperature and pH value were also showed great influence to the adsorption behavior.

Variations of DOM quantity and compositions along WWTPs-river-lake continuum: Implications for watershed environmental management.

Wastewater effluent makes up an increasingly large percentage of surface water supplies, but the impacts of discharge of effluent organic matter (EfOM) on receiving riverine and lacustrine dissolved organic matter (DOM) is still largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated variations of DOM quantity and quality along wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)-river-lake continuum during drought periods, and made a tentative discussion on its implications for watershed environmental management. We used dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, UV absorption coefficients and excitation-emission-matrixs (EEMs) fluorescence spectroscopy combined with fluorescence regional integration (FRI) to characterize EfOM and riverine and lacustrine DOM along WWTPs-river-Chaohu Lake continuum. Our results showed that changes in DOM quantity and quality in receiving waterbodies were related to EfOM discharged from WWTPs and external input of DOM along inflowing river. Specifically, we found that the ratio of protein-like/humic-like notably decreased (P < 0.05), and %humic-like increased (P < 0.01) along WWTPs-river-lake continuum. Furthermore, the recent autochthonous contribution index (BIX) and the humification index (HIX) values showed that these variations of DOM composition were attributed to microbial degradations in receiving waterbodies. We concluded that the changes of DOM quantity and quality along WWTPs-river-lake continuum had important implications for DOM behaviors, and offered some novel ideas for watershed environmental management.

Selection of magnetic anion exchange resins for the removal of dissolved organic and inorganic matters.

Four magnetic anion exchange resins (MAERs) were used as adsorbents to purify drinking water. The effect of water quality (pH, temperature, ionic strength, etc.) on the performance of MAER for the removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM) was also investigated. Among the four studied MAERs, the strong base resin named NDMP-1 with high water content and enhanced exchange capacity exhibited the highest removal rate of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (48.9% removal rate) and UV-absorbing substances (82.4% removal rate) with a resin dose of 10 mL/L after 30 min of contact time. The MAERs could also effectively remove inorganic matter such as sulfate, nitrate and fluoride. Because of the higher specific UV absorbance (SUVA) value, the DOM in the raw water was found to be removed more effectively than that in the clarified water by NDMP resin. The temperature showed a weak influence on the removal of DOC from 6 to 26 degrees C, while a relatively strong one at 36 degrees C. The removal of DOM by NDMP was also affected to some extent by the pH value. Moreover, increasing the sulfate concentration in the raw water could decrease the removal rates of DOC and UV-absorbing substances.

Assessment of the manganese content of the drinking water source in Yancheng, China.

Excessive intake of manganese can damage the nervous system of the human body. In August 2009, the manganese content of the drinking water source in Yancheng exceeded the national standard of drinking water source, which influenced the daily life of the local residents. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors leading to the manganese content of river water in Yancheng exceeding the national standard. To the data, the manganese content of surface water in Yancheng already met the national standard of drinking water source in September 2009, but the manganese content of river sediment was relatively high, especially in Mangshe River and Tongyu River. It was worthwhile to note that the soluble manganese content of the sediment in Mangshe River was even as high as 270 mg kg(-1), which suggested that the release of manganese from the sediment was the major cause of the pollution. The manganese content of the soil near the rivers was also determined, and the results indicated that the wastewater and waste slag discharged by the stainless steel factories nearby were the main pollution sources of manganese. Furthermore, the environmental factors affecting the release of manganese from the sediment were also investigated.