Bionic synthesis of a magnetic calcite skeletal structure through living foraminifera

Magnabosco, Giulia; Hauzer, Hagar; Fermani, Simona; Calvaresi, Matteo; Corticelli, Franco; Christian, Meganne; Albonetti, Cristiano; Morandi, Vittorio; Erez, Jonathan; Falini, Giuseppe

doi:10.1039/c9mh00495e

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Recently, calcite skeletal structures of marine protozoa foraminifera have been used for the synthesis of magnetic nanocomposites. This is, the first report of bionic synthesis of nanocomposites using the natural biomineralization pathway ( Magnabosco et al, 2019 ). Other studies have reported the biosynthesis of QDs by Tetrahymena pyriformis .…”

Section: Protozoans As Cellular Factories For Nanomaterials Synthesismentioning

confidence: 93%

The Emerging Trend of Bio-Engineering Approaches for Microbial Nanomaterial Synthesis and Its Applications

et al. 2021

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Micro-organisms colonized the world before the multi-cellular organisms evolved. With the advent of microscopy, their existence became evident to the mankind and also the vast processes they regulate, that are in direct interest of the human beings. One such process that intrigued the researchers is the ability to grow in presence of toxic metals. The process seemed to be simple with the metal ions being sequestrated into the inclusion bodies or cell surfaces enabling the conversion into nontoxic nanostructures. However, the discovery of genome sequencing techniques highlighted the genetic makeup of these microbes as a quintessential aspect of these phenomena. The findings of metal resistance genes (MRG) in these microbes showed a rather complex regulation of these processes. Since most of these MRGs are plasmid encoded they can be transferred horizontally. With the discovery of nanoparticles and their many applications from polymer chemistry to drug delivery, the demand for innovative techniques of nanoparticle synthesis increased dramatically. It is now established that microbial synthesis of nanoparticles provides numerous advantages over the existing chemical methods. However, it is the explicit use of biotechnology, molecular biology, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and genetic engineering tools that revolutionized the world of microbial nanotechnology. Detailed study of the micro and even nanolevel assembly of microbial life also intrigued biologists and engineers to generate molecular motors that mimic bacterial flagellar motor. In this review, we highlight the importance and tremendous hidden potential of bio-engineering tools in exploiting the area of microbial nanoparticle synthesis. We also highlight the application oriented specific modulations that can be done in the stages involved in the synthesis of these nanoparticles. Finally, the role of these nanoparticles in the natural ecosystem is also addressed.

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Section: Protozoans As Cellular Factories For Nanomaterials Synthesismentioning

confidence: 93%

The Emerging Trend of Bio-Engineering Approaches for Microbial Nanomaterial Synthesis and Its Applications

et al. 2021

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“…A recent work described the in vivo preparation of a bionic material through the inclusion of fluorescent magnetite nanoparticles within calcite skeletal structure of the unicellular organism foraminifer Amphistrigina lesson. Such in vitro synthetic approach exploited the natural biomineralization process of growth in the presence of magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with a hydroxylated dextran shell [106].…”

Section: Cell Culture Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Nanotechnology: Challenges and Prospects for Green Biocatalytic Synthesis of Nanoscale Materials for Sensoristic and Biomedical Applications

2019

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Nanomaterials are increasingly being used in new products and devices with a great impact on different fields from sensoristics to biomedicine. Biosynthesis of nanomaterials by microorganisms is recently attracting interest as a new, exciting approach towards the development of ‘greener’ nanomanufacturing compared to traditional chemical and physical approaches. This review provides an insight about microbial biosynthesis of nanomaterials by bacteria, yeast, molds, and microalgae for the manufacturing of sensoristic devices and therapeutic/diagnostic applications. The last ten-year literature was selected, focusing on scientific works where aspects like biosynthesis features, characterization, and applications have been described. The knowledge, challenges, and potentiality of microbial-mediated biosynthesis was also described. Bacteria and microalgae are the main microorganism used for nanobiosynthesis, principally for biomedical applications. Some bacteria and microalgae have showed the ability to synthetize unique nanostructures: bacterial nanocellulose, exopolysaccharides, bacterial nanowires, and biomineralized nanoscale materials (magnetosomes, frustules, and coccoliths). Yeasts and molds are characterized by extracellular synthesis, advantageous for possible reuse of cell cultures and reduced purification processes of nanomaterials. The intrinsic variability of the microbiological systems requires a greater protocols standardization to obtain nanomaterials with increasingly uniform and reproducible chemical-physical characteristics. A deeper knowledge about biosynthetic pathways and the opportunities from genetic engineering are stimulating the research towards a breakthrough development of microbial-based nanosynthesis for the future scaling-up and possible industrial exploitation of these promising ‘nanofactories’.

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“…The conditions used in these synthetic protocols are usually harsh and employ elevated temperatures and pressures, organic solvents and toxic and expensive chemicals. Living organisms can offer great assistance to chemists to synthesize new materials (Valentini et al, 2016;Ashfaq et al, 2018;Nguyen et al, 2018;Magnabosco et al, 2019;Pugno and Valentini, 2019). After all, living organisms are essentially "nano-factories."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Plant Bioreactor for the Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube Bionic Nanocomposites

Magnabosco

Pantano

Rapino

et al. 2020

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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Bionic composites are an emerging class of materials produced exploiting living organisms as reactors to include synthetic functional materials in their native and highly performing structures. In this work, single wall carboxylated carbon nanotubes (SWCNT-COOH) were incorporated within the roots of living plants of Arabidopsis thaliana. This biogenic synthetic route produced a bionic composite material made of root components and SWCNT-COOH. The synthesis was possible exploiting the transport processes existing in the plant roots. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) measurements showed that SWCNT-COOH entered the vascular bundles of A. thaliana roots localizing within xylem vessels. SWCNT-COOH preserved their electrical properties when embedded inside the root matrix, both at a microscopic level and a macroscopic level, and did not significantly affect the mechanical properties of A. thaliana roots.

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Bionic synthesis of a magnetic calcite skeletal structure through living foraminifera

Abstract: This communication describes the bionic preparation of a composite material in which fluorescent magnetite nanoparticles are included within the calcitic skeletal structure of the foraminifer Amphistrigina lessoni.

Cited by 9 publications

References 49 publications

The Emerging Trend of Bio-Engineering Approaches for Microbial Nanomaterial Synthesis and Its Applications

The Emerging Trend of Bio-Engineering Approaches for Microbial Nanomaterial Synthesis and Its Applications

Microbial Nanotechnology: Challenges and Prospects for Green Biocatalytic Synthesis of Nanoscale Materials for Sensoristic and Biomedical Applications

A Plant Bioreactor for the Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube Bionic Nanocomposites

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