Exposure of aquatic organisms to micro- and nano-sized plastic debris in their environment has become an alarming concern. Besides having a number of potentially harmful impacts for individual organisms, plastic particles can also influence the phenotype and performance of their offspring. We tested whether the sperm pre-fertilization exposure to nanoplastic particles could affect offspring survival, size, and swimming performance in the European whitefish Coregonus lavaretus. We exposed sperm of ten whitefish males to three concentrations (0, 100 and 10 000 pcs spermatozoa⁻¹) of 50 nm carboxyl-coated polystyrene spheres, recorded sperm motility parameters using computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) and then fertilized the eggs of five females in all possible male-female combinations. Finally, we studied embryonic mortality, hatching time, size, and post-hatching swimming performance of the offspring. We found that highest concentration of plastic particles decreased sperm motility and offspring hatching time. Furthermore, sperm exposure to highest concentration of plastics reduced offspring body mass and impaired their swimming ability. This suggests that sperm pre-fertilization exposure to plastic pollution may decrease male fertilization potential and have important transgenerational impacts for offspring phenotype and performance. Our findings indicate that nanoplastics pollution may have significant ecological and evolutionary consequences in aquatic ecosystems.

水生生物暴露于环境中的微米和纳米级塑料碎片已成为一个令人担忧的问题。除了对个体生物体有许多潜在的有害影响外，塑料颗粒还会影响其后代的表型和表现。我们测试了精子在受精前暴露于纳米塑料颗粒是否会影响欧洲白鱼Coregonus lavaretus 的后代存活、大小和游泳性能。我们将 10 条雄性白鱼的精子暴露于三种浓度（0、100 和 10 000 个精子^-1) 的 50 nm 羧基涂层聚苯乙烯球体，使用计算机辅助精子分析 (CASA) 记录精子活力参数，然后以所有可能的雄性-雌性组合使五只雌性的卵子受精。最后，我们研究了后代的胚胎死亡率、孵化时间、大小和孵化后游泳性能。我们发现最高浓度的塑料颗粒会降低精子活力和后代孵化时间。此外，精子暴露于最高浓度的塑料会降低后代的体重并削弱他们的游泳能力。这表明精子在受精前接触塑料污染可能会降低男性受精的潜力，并对后代的表型和表现产生重要的跨代影响。