Research Projects

Plastic pollution is a growing concern, with estimates predicting that the ocean will receive 250 million tons of plastic waste by 2025. Microplastics (MPs), such as polystyrene, are created from plastic waste through physical, biological, and photochemical processes. These MPs accumulate in organisms, leading to severe inflammatory reactions in fish and marine fish. MP ingestion and digestion can also adsorb metals and organic pollutants, causing genotoxicity, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption, and neurological dysfunction. Parental exposure to MPs can lead to reproductive dysfunction and altered hatching ratios in offspring. The underlying toxicity mechanisms are requiring further study, with metabolomics being a crucial non-invasive biomarker for identifying transgenerational hazards. This study aims to explore the interactions between metabolism and the transgenerational stress response following MP exposure, providing the first-time detailed insight into metabolomics markers in identifying transgenerational hazards of polystyrene microplastics.