南开大学汪磊研究团队近日取得一项新成果。他们的研究显示，叶片吸收有助于植物体内微塑料的积累。这一研究成果发表在2025年4月9日出版的国际学术期刊《自然》上。

植物吸收对许多污染物进入食物链很重要。虽然陆源微塑料（MPs）可以被根系吸收，但它们向上迁移的速度很慢。与此同时，大气中的MPs广泛存在，但仍缺乏植物直接吸收它们的有力证据。质谱分析表明，植物叶片中广泛存在聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）和聚苯乙烯（PS）聚合物和低聚物，并确定其含量随大气浓度和叶片生长时间的增加而增加。PET和PS聚合物的浓度可达10⁴在研究的高污染地区，如涤纶工厂和垃圾填埋场，在露天种植的叶菜中可以检测到每克干重10²-10³纳克的PET和PS。

采用高光谱成像技术和原子力显微镜-红外光谱技术对叶片中的PET和PS纳米颗粒进行了目视检测。利用高光谱成像、共聚焦显微镜和激光烧蚀感应耦合等离子体质谱技术，研究了玉米叶片通过气孔途径吸收主动暴露的非标记、荧光标记或铕标记的塑料颗粒，并通过胞外途径向维管组织转运，并在毛状体中积累。他们的研究结果表明，植物叶片对大气中多磺酸盐的吸收和积累在环境中广泛存在，在评估人类和其他生物对环境多磺酸盐的暴露时不应忽视这一点。

附：英文原文

Title: Leaf absorption contributes to accumulation of microplastics in plants

Author: Li, Ye, Zhang, Junjie, Xu, Li, Li, Ruoqi, Zhang, Rui, Li, Mengxi, Ran, Chunmei, Rao, Ziyu, Wei, Xing, Chen, Mingli, Wang, Lu, Li, Zhiwanxin, Xue, Yining, Peng, Chu, Liu, Chunguang, Sun, Hongwen, Xing, Baoshan, Wang, Lei

Issue&Volume: 2025-04-09

Abstract: Plant absorption is important for the entry of many pollutants into food chains. Although terrestrial microplastics (MPs) can be absorbed by the roots1,2, their upward translocation is slow1. Meanwhile, atmospheric MPs are widely present3,4, but strong evidence on their direct absorption by plants is still lacking. Here, analyses using mass spectrometry detection show the widespread occurrence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polystyrene (PS) polymers and oligomers in plant leaves, and identify that their levels increase with atmospheric concentrations and the leaf growth duration. The concentrations of PET and PS polymers can reach up to 104ng per g dry weight in leaves at the high-pollution areas studied, such as the Dacron factory and a landfill site, and 102–103 ng per g dry weight of PET and PS can be detected in the open-air-grown leafy vegetables. Nano-sized PET and PS particles in the leaves were visually detected by hyperspectral imaging and atomic force microscopy–infrared spectroscopy. Absorption of the proactively exposed non-labelled, fluorescently labelled or europium-labelled plastic particles by maize (Zea mays L.) leaves through stomatal pathways, as well as their translocation to the vascular tissue through the apoplastic pathway, and accumulation in trichomes was identified using hyperspectral imaging, confocal microscopy and laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Our results demonstrate that the absorption and accumulation of atmospheric MPs by plant leaves occur widely in the environment, and this should not be neglected when assessing the exposure of humans and other organisms to environmental MPs.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08831-4

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08831-4