Mixture effects of polystyrene microplastics on the gut microbiota in C57BL/6 mice
The ubiquity of microplastics in the environment has raised serious public health concerns. In the nature environment, living organisms are exposed to a mixture of microplastics at various sizes. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to polystyrene (PS) microplastics with different sizes, including microplastics with diameter of 0.05-0.1µm (PS0.1 group), 9-10µm (PS10 group) and microplastic mixture of both 0.05-0.1µm and 9-10µm (PSMix group) at a concentration of 100 ppb for each size. Mixture effects of microplastics were investigated on the composition of bacteria and fungi, as well as functional metagenome and microbial genes encoding antibiotic resistance and virulence factors.