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Synthesis of silver nanoparticles using haloarchaeal isolate Halococcus salifodinae BK3

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Abstract

Numerous bacteria, fungi, yeasts and viruses have been exploited for biosynthesis of highly structured metal sulfide and metallic nanoparticles. Haloarchaea (salt-loving archaea) of the third domain of life Archaea, on the other hand have not yet been explored for nanoparticle synthesis. In this study, we report the intracellular synthesis of stable, mostly spherical silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by the haloarchaeal isolate Halococcus salifodinae BK3. The culture on adaptation to silver nitrate exhibited growth kinetics similar to that of the control. NADH-dependent nitrate reductase was involved in silver tolerance, reduction, synthesis of AgNPs, and exhibited metal-dependent increase in enzyme activity. The AgNPs preparation was characterized using UV–visible spectroscopy, XRD, TEM and EDAX. The XRD analysis of the nanoparticles showed the characteristic Bragg peaks of face-centered cubic silver with crystallite domain size of 22 and 12 nm for AgNPs synthesized in NTYE and halophilic nitrate broth (HNB), respectively. The average particle size obtained from TEM analysis was 50.3 and 12 nm for AgNPs synthesized in NTYE and HNB, respectively. This is the first report on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles by haloarchaea.

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Abbreviations

NTYE:

NaCl, tryptone, yeast extract

AgNPs:

Silver nanoparticles

MNPs:

Metallic nanoparticles

HNB:

Halophilic nitrate broth

XRD:

X-ray diffraction

TEM:

Transmission electron microscopy

EDAX:

Energy dispersive x-ray analysis

SAED:

Selected area electron diffraction

NR:

Nitrate reductase

fcc:

Face-centered cubic

EDTA:

Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid

PMSF:

Phenyl methane sulfonyl fluoride

IAA:

Iodoacetate

NED:

N-(1-Naphthyl) ethylene diamine hydrochloride

DTNB:

5,5′-Dithio-bis (2-nitrobenzoic acid)

T-SH:

Total thiol

NP-SH:

Non-protein thiol

PB-SH:

Protein-bound thiol

CFE:

Cell-free extract

ZoI:

Zone of inhibition

GSH:

Glutathione

γGC:

Gamma glutamyl cysteine

GCR:

bis-γ-Glutamyl cysteine reductase

MTP:

Multiply-twinned particles

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ministry of Earth Science (MoES), Government of India for their funding of the project MoES/11-MRDF/1/38/P/10-PC-III. We would like to thank Dr. Neha Hebalkar at ARCI, Hyderabad and the SAIF at IIT-Bombay for their help with TEM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, NH-17B, Zuarinagar, 403 726, Goa, India

    Pallavee Srivastava, Judith Bragança & Meenal Kowshik

  2. Chemical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, NH-17B, Zuarinagar, 403 726, Goa, India

    Sutapa Roy Ramanan

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  1. Pallavee Srivastava
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  2. Judith Bragança
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  3. Sutapa Roy Ramanan
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  4. Meenal Kowshik
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Correspondence to Meenal Kowshik.

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Communicated by H. Atomi.

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Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 17 kb)

792_2013_563_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplemnetary Fig. S1 Effect of silver nitrate on the concentrations of total (T-SH), non-protein (NP-SH) and protein-bound (PB-SH) thiols in H. salifodinae BK3 exposed to 0.05 and 0.5 mM AgNO3. Control = 0 mM AgNO3. Values are mean ± SD for three experiments. (TIFF 8499 kb)

792_2013_563_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. S2 Effect of silver nitrate on growth profiles of H. salifodinae BK3 a in HNB without AgNO3 (control); b upon first exposure to AgNO3 by addition of 0.5 mM AgNO3 in HNB; c for cells adapted to AgNO3 upon addition of 0.5 mM AgNO3 in HNB. Values are mean ± SD (error bars) for three experiments. (TIFF 11254 kb)

792_2013_563_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. S3 UV–visible absorbance spectrum of the AgNPs synthesized by H. salifodinae BK3. a The spectra of AgNPs synthesized in NTYE (black) and in HNB (red); b Comparison of the UV–Visible profile of AgNPs prepared in HNB immediately after synthesis (blue) and after 6 months of storage (green). (TIFF 7995 kb)

792_2013_563_MOESM5_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. S4 X-ray diffraction pattern of AgNPs synthesized by H. salifodinae BK3 in a NTYE and b HNB. (TIFF 7995 kb)

792_2013_563_MOESM6_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. S5 Representative TEM micrographs showing triangular and disc like morphology of the AgNPs synthesized by H. salifodinae BK3 in the presence of 0.5 mM AgNO3. (TIFF 1256 kb)

Supplementary Fig. S6 EDAX spectrum of the AgNPs synthesized by H. salifodinae BK3 in a NTYE and b HNB. (TIFF 269 kb)

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Srivastava, P., Bragança, J., Ramanan, S.R. et al. Synthesis of silver nanoparticles using haloarchaeal isolate Halococcus salifodinae BK3 . Extremophiles 17, 821–831 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0563-3

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