Engineering Commons^™

Ag Nanoparticles Generated Using Bio-Reduction And –Coating Cause Microbial Killing Without Cell Lysis, Gade A. Adams, Joan E. Mclean, J. Adams, D. W. Britt, Fenann Shen, A. Jacobson, Y. C. Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Cost-effective “green” methods of producing Ag nanoparticles (NPs) are being examined because of the potential of these NPs as antimicrobials. Ag NPs were generated from Ag ions using extracellular metabolites from a soil-borne Pythium species. The NPs were variable in size, but had one dimension less than 50 nm and were biocoated; aggregation and coating changed with acetone precipitation. They had dose-dependent lethal effects on a soil pseudomonad, Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6, and were about 30-fold more effective than Ag+ ions. A role of reactive oxygen species in cell death was demonstrated by use of fluorescent dyes responsive to superoxide anion …