Sowe river plastisphere AMR and degradation. The ride down the river of pathogens as part of the freshwater plastisphere

In this this study we incubated pristine and weathered PE plastics along with wood in a river for one week. Prior to collection of these samples - along with the surrounding river water - the microbial assemblages were used for metagenomic sequencing and a thorough investigation of the capacity of these microbes to harbour AMR, virulence factors, mobile genetic elements and genes potentially used for the degradation of plastics has been carried out.