Shoreline scavenger shows biological effects after eating plastic foam

In a paper published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, researchers at Kyushu University report on what happens when wharf roaches, a common shoreline scavenger, eat expanded polystyrene (EPS). Roaches that fed on EPS showed no significant reduction in lifespan, but their guts displayed altered expression of genes involved in chemical defense, DNA repair and digestion. Analysis of the wharf roach gut microbiome showed little change, but several rare microbes were found only in the EPS-fed specimens.