Floating Microplastic Petri Dish

News to watch: Microplastics are not just polluting the water. Turns out they are the perfect floating petri dish for growing--and spreading--harmful bacteria.

We all know that microplastics are a major source of pollution in the ocean. Here’s one more reason to be concerned about these contaminants. It turns out that plastics in ocean water act like the perfect floating petri dish. Together they allow harmful bacteria to form protected colonies that are more potent than free-floating microbes.

This is bad news for the aquaculture industry which experiences devastating losses from bacterial outbreaks. And it may be bad news for what ends up on our dinner plates too. You can learn more about these “Oceanic Hitchhikers” in Trends in Microbiology.

Source: Trends in Microbiology