Directed Biofabrication of Nanoparticles through Regulating Extracellular Electron Transfer

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society 2017-09, Vol.139 (35), p.12149-12152
• Main Authors: Tian, Li-Jiao, Li, Wen-Wei, Zhu, Ting-Ting, Chen, Jie-Jie, Wang, Wei-Kang, An, Peng-Fei, Zhang, Long, Dong, Jun-Cai, Guan, Yong, Liu, Dong-Feng, Zhou, Nan-Qing, Liu, Gang, Tian, Yang-Chao, Yu, Han-Qing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b07460

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.