Persistence of algal toxicity induced by polystyrene nanoplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations

Polystyrene (PS) often found in the ocean is one of the most commonly used plastic polymers in the world and can exist in different particle sizes. In particular, PS degrades relatively faster and widely accumulates at the nanoscale. Therefore, the penetration is strong and it is easy to enter the body and cause adverse effects. However, the persistence or recovery of their toxicity remains largely unclear. Here, we designed two subexperiments (exposure and recovery experiments) and investigated the persistence of the toxicity of polystyrene (PS) NPs at a wide concentration range (0.01–10 mg/L) to diatoms (Phaeodactylum tricornutum). PS-NPs significantly inhibited algal growth and clearly wrinkled the surfaces of cells, membrane permeability was significantly increased, and the steady-state state of cell redox and mitochondrial membrane potential was disturbed. However, in the recovery experiment, the increased membrane permeability was observed to persist, but the induced oxidative damage was reversible, and the absorbed NPs could be excreted. Integrated omics techniques (metabolomics and transcriptomics) revealed that PS-NPs significantly disrupts cell metabolism, including disturbances in fatty acid biosynthesis and enhanced biosynthesis of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. Inhibition of fatty acid, amino acid, energy and carbohydrate metabolism and disturbance of the antioxidant system contribute to the persistence of toxicity. These findings highlight the phenomena and mechanisms of the persistence of phytotoxicity and are critical to the accurate assessment of NPs.