Hydrophobins from Aspergillus Mediate Fungal Interactions with Microplastics
Microplastics cause negative environmental consequences such as the release of toxic additive leachates, increased greenhouse gas emissions during degradation, and threaten food chains . Microplastic particles are known to serve as a vector for transport of microbes (fungi and bacteria) to new environments, threatening biodiversity. Robust biofilm formation makes fungi a candidate to collect and remediate environmental microplastics. However, fungal-microplastic colonization mechanisms have yet to be explored. In this work, we aim to understand which fungal molecules mediate microplastics binding. We examine common fungal genus Aspergillus , which we found binds microplastics tightly, removing particles from suspension. Upon inoculation of Aspergilli with microplastics particles, up to 3.85 ± 1.48 g of microplastics were flocculated per gram of dry fungal biomass; this phenomenon was observed across various plastics ranging in size from 0.05 to 5 mm. Gene knockouts revealed that hydrophobins drive microplastic-fungi binding, evidenced by a decrease in flocculation relative to wild-type Aspergillus fumigatus. Moreover, purified hydrophobins flocculated microplastics independently of the fungus, validating their ability to bind to microplastics. Furthermore, our work elucidates a role for hydrophobins in fungal colonization of microplastics and highlights a target for mitigating the harm of microplastics through engineered fungal-microplastic interactions.