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Published on: February 11, 2016
Metal nanoparticles Biosynthesis Using the Halophilic Archaeon Haloferax volcanii
Mariana Inés Costa1, María Inés Giménez2
1Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMdP), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Abstract:
Nanoparticle (NP) synthesis using biological resources as reducing agents is an eco-friendly and simple strategy compared to the traditional physical/chemical methods. The ability of microorganisms of the Archaea domain to synthesize metal NPs has been explored to a limited extent. Metal NPs have been applied in several fields including catalysis, agriculture, biomedicine, electronics, and optics. Recently we reported that the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii is capable of synthesizing silver and gold NPs. In this work, we present a simple protocol for the obtention of metal NPs using this microorganism which may be also used as a starting point for assaying NP biosynthesis in other haloarchaea.
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