Braga Jr., R. A.

Morales, V. L.

Spiers, A. J.

English

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Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 14, EGU2012-11848, 2012EGU General Assembly 2012© Author(s) 2012Impact of Nano-Silver Exposure on Microbial ActivityV.L. Morales (1), R.A. Braga Jr. (2), and A.J. Spiers (1)(1) SIMBIOS Centre, Abertay University Dundee, Dundee DDI 1HG, Scotland (v.morales@abertay.ac.uk), (2) EngineeringDepartment, Federal University of Lavras. Lavras 37.200-000, Brazil.A key gap in environmental impact assessments of emerging contaminants is the change in biological activity ofmicroorganisms exposed to toxic substances. Silver-nanoparticles are among the top cytotoxic nanomaterials sus-pected to threaten microbial functions of natural and engineered systems. In this study, a novel light-interferencetechnique termed ‘bio-speckle’ is employed to determine real-time biological activity of monocultures andbiologically complex samples. Bio-speckle uses laser illumination of biological samples to create interferencepatterns of the scattered light that can be used to quantify intracellular organelle movement as a measurement ofbiological activity. To test the potential of bio-speckle technique for toxicity assays, filter paper microcosms of themodel environmental bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens strain SBW25 were exposed to uncoated nano-silversuspensions for 2, 24, 48, and 72 hours. At the end of each exposure period, biological activity was quantitativelydetermined as the dynamic speckle pattern’s moment of inertia. Results suggest that the biological activity ofbacteria decreases exponentially with the time of exposure of the colonies to the silver nanoparticles.

Impact of nano-silver exposure on microbial activity

https://rke.abertay.ac.uk/files/14298775/Spiers_ImpactOfNano_SilverExposureOnMicrobialActivity_Published_2012.pdf

Impact of nano-silver exposure on microbial activity

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