Plastic-Colonizing Fungi in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea: Community Structure and Physiological and Transcriptional Responses of Aspergillus to Pristine and Weathered PET
Marine plastic debris provides persistent artificial substrates for microbial colonization, yet the fungal component of the plastisphere remains poorly characterized. Using ITS metabarcoding and culture-based isolation approaches, we characterized the early mycobiome associated with polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP...