Microbiome study associated with microplastics collected in Scotland IMTA lab - SAMS

The study conducted at the Scotland IMTA Lab (SAMS) in May 2022 aimed to analyze microbial diversity on microplastics and in surrounding seawater, while evaluating methods for isolating microplastics and their associated microorganisms. Water samples were collected from a depth of 1.5 meters, and microplastics were filtered from 1000 liters of seawater. DNA extraction was performed on both sample types, with microbial analysis targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Data analysis was perfromed with a combination of QIIME2 and Rstudio.