Directed Biofabrication of Nanoparticles through Regulating Extracellular Electron Transfer

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07460
• Publication Date: 2017-08-21T17:36:20Z
• Authors: Li-Jiao Tian; Wen-Wei Li; Ting-Ting Zhu; Jie-Jie Chen; Wei-Kang Wang; Peng-Fei An; Long Zhang; Jun-Cai Dong; Yong Guan; Dong-Feng Liu; Nan-Qing Zhou; Gang Liu; Yang-Chao Tian; Han-Qing Yu
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Biofabrication of nanomaterials is currently constrained by a low production efficiency and poor controllability on product quality compared to chemical synthetic routes. In this work, we show an attractive new biosynthesis system to break these limitations. A directed production of selenium-containing nanoparticles in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 cells, with fine-tuned composition and subcellular synthetic location, was achieved by modifying the extracellular electron transfer chain. By taking advantage of its untapped intracellular detoxification and synthetic power, we obtained high-purity, uniform-sized cadmium selenide nanoparticles in the cytoplasm, with the production rates and fluorescent intensities far exceeding the state-of-the-art biosystems. These findings may fundamentally change our perception of nanomaterial biosynthesis process and lead to the development of fine-controllable nanoparticles biosynthesis technologies.