Transgenerational effects of polyethylene microplastic fragments containing benzophenone-3 additive in Daphnia magna

Maternal exposure to microplastics (MPs) plays an important role in the fitness of unexposed progeny. In this study, the transgenerational effects of polyethylene MP fragments (17.35 ± 5.50 µm) containing benzophenone-3 (BP-3; 2.85 ± 0.16% w/w) on chronic toxicity (21 d) in Daphnia magna were investigated across four generations. Only D. magna in the F0 generation was exposed to MP fragments, MP/BP-3 fragments, and BP-3 leachate to identify the transgenerational effect in the F3 generation. The mortality of D. magna induced by MP and MP/BP-3 fragments was recovered in the F3 generation, but somatic growth and reproduction significantly decreased compared to the control. Additionally, reproduction of D. magna exposed to BP-3 leachate significantly decreased in the F3 generation. These findings confirmed the transgenerational effects of MP fragment and BP-3 additive on D. magna. Particularly, the adverse effect on D. magna reproduction seemed to be cumulative across four generations for MP/BP-3 fragments, while it was an acclimation trend for BP-3 leachate. However, there was no significant difference in global DNA methylation in D. magna across four generations, thus requiring a gene-specific DNA methylation study to identify different epigenetic transgenerational inheritance.