{
  "abstract": "Rivers transport most land-derived plastic waste to the ocean, yet how this reshapes microbial metabolic potential remains poorly resolved. We characterized plastisphere and water-column communities across 14 stations along the River Rhine, integrating ATR-FTIR polymer characterization, 16S/18S rRNA amplicon profiles, and 120 metagenome-assembled genomes. Plastisphere communities were taxonomically distinct from water communities (PERMANOVA R = 0.258, p = 0.0001) and, despite no overall shift in functional centroid (R = 0.245, p = 0.125), were markedly more heterogeneous in functional composition across sites (permutest p = 0.0047). Aerobic corrin ring synthesis, the core B12 biosynthetic pathway, was among the most differentially dispersed functions and enriched on plastic at all seven paired stations (Wilcoxon exact test, W = 3, p = 0.004079). This signal coincided with a diatom-dominated eukaryotic plastisphere community; diatoms cannot synthesize B12 and depend on bacterial provisioning, linking functional and taxonomic restructuring via a plausible cross-domain mechanism. Plastisphere communities were also less tightly coupled to the river's dissolved nutrient gradient than water communities (envfit R = 0.64 vs. 0.82). Together, these results indicate that riverine plastic litter does not merely accumulate biomass passively but actively restructures specific metabolic capacities of its colonizers, exemplified by vitamin B12 metabolism.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "P. Carrillo Barragan"
    },
    {
      "name": "E. Zettler"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Rieder"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. G. Murphy"
    },
    {
      "name": "T. Theirlynck"
    },
    {
      "name": "P. Burkhardt-Holm"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "L. Amaral-Zettler"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8a5es7kp7pav1.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.06.749157",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.06.749157v1.full",
  "id": "8a5es7kp7pav1",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.06.749157v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "microbiology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2310|Microplastics and Plastic Pollution"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7211934126",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.06.749157v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-06",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8a5es7kp7pav1.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:03Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.06.749157",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.06.749157v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:microbiology",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Riverine plastic litter restructures microbial vitamin B12 metabolism and generates functional heterogeneity",
  "title_text": "Riverine plastic litter restructures microbial vitamin B12 metabolism and generates functional heterogeneity",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:03Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8a5es7kp7pav1",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}