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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a significant collection of plastic introduced by human activities, provides an ideal environment to study bacterial lifestyles on plastic substrates. We proposed that bacteria colonizing the floating plastic debris would develop strategies to deal with the ultraviolet‐exposed substrate, such as the production of antioxidant pigments. We observed a variety of pigmentation in 67 strains that were directly cultivated from plastic pieces sampled from the Garbage Patch. The genomic analysis of four representative strains, each distinct in taxonomy, revealed multiple pathways for carotenoid production. These pathways include those that produce less common carotenoids and a cluster of photosynthetic genes. This cluster appears to originate from a potentially new species of the Rhodobacteraceae family. This represents the first report of an aerobic anoxygenic photoheterotrophic bacterium from plastic biofilms. Spectral analysis showed that the bacteria actively produce carotenoids, such as beta‐carotene and beta‐cryptoxanthin, and bacteriochlorophyll a. Furthermore, we discovered that the genetic ability to synthesize carotenoids is more common in plastic biofilms than in the surrounding water communities. Our findings suggest that plastic biofilms could be an overlooked source of bacteria‐produced carotenoids, including rare forms. It also suggests that photoreactive molecules might play a crucial role in bacterial biofilm communities in surface water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great research interest in the quantification of reactive carbonyl compounds (RCCs), such as methylglyoxal (MGO) in biological and environmental samples, is reflected by the fact that several publications have described specific strategies to perform this task. Thus, many reagents have also been reported for the derivatization of RCCs to effectively detect and quantify the resulting compounds using sensitive techniques such as liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS). However, the choice of the derivatization protocol is not always clear, and a comparative evaluation is not feasible because detection limits from separate reports and determined with different instruments are hardly comparable. Consequently, for a systematic comparison, we tested 21 agents in one experimental setup for derivatization of RCCs prior to LC-MS analysis. This consisted of seven commonly employed reagents and 14 similar reagents, three of which were designed and synthesized by us. All reagents were probed for analytical responsiveness of the derivatives and stability of the reaction mixtures. The results showed that derivatives of 4-methoxyphenylenediamine and 3-methoxyphenylhydrazine—reported here for the first time for derivatization of RCCs—provided a particularly high responsiveness with ESI-MS detection. We applied the protocol to investigate MGO contamination of laboratory water and show successful quantification in a lipoxidation experiment. In summary, our results provide valuable information for scientists in establishing accurate analysis of RCCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of environmental plastic pollution, it is still under debate if and how the "plastisphere", a plastic-specific microbial community, emerges. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the first conditioning film of dissolved organic matter (DOM) sorbs selectively to polymer substrates and that microbial attachment is governed in a substrate-dependent manner. We investigated the adsorption of stream water-derived DOM to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), and glass (as control) including UV-weathered surfaces by Fourier-transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometry. Generally, the saturated, high-molecular mass and thus more hydrophobic fraction of the original stream water DOM preferentially adsorbed to the substrates. The UV-weathered polymers adsorbed more polar, hydrophilic OM as compared to the dark controls. The amplicon sequencing data of the initial microbial colonization process revealed a tendency of substrate specificity for biofilm attachment after 24 h and a clear convergence of the communities after 72 h of incubation. Conclusively, the adsorbed OM layer developed depending on the materials' surface properties and increased the water contact angles, indicating higher surface hydrophobicity as compared to pristine surfaces. This study improves our understanding of molecular and biological interactions at the polymer/water interface that are relevant to understand the ecological impact of plastic pollution on a community level.