3, 4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine-derived melanin from Yarrowia lipolytica mediates the synthesis of silver and gold nanostructures

Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Research

Ameeta RaviKumar¹  Ashok Bankar¹  Gauri Girme¹  Mugdha Apte¹  Smita Zinjarde¹ 

[1] Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, University of Pune, 411 007, Pune, India;

关键词: Yarrowia lipolytica;    L-DOPA melanin;    Nanoparticles;    Anti-fungal activity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1477-3155-11-2

 received in 2012-12-11, accepted in 2013-01-25,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNanobiotechnology applies the capabilities of biological systems in generating a variety of nano-sized structures. Plants, algae, fungi and bacteria are some systems mediating such reactions. In fungi, the synthesis of melanin is an important strategy for cell-survival under metal-stressed conditions. Yarrowia lipolytica, the biotechnologically significant yeast also produces melanin that sequesters heavy metal ions. The content of this cell-associated melanin is often low and precursors such as L-tyrosine or 3, 4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (L-DOPA) can enhance its production. The induced melanin has not been exploited for the synthesis of nanostructures. In this investigation, we have employed L-DOPA-melanin for the facile synthesis of silver and gold nanostructures. The former have been used for the development of anti-fungal paints.MethodsYarrowia lipolytica NCIM 3590 cells were incubated with L-DOPA for 18 h and the resultant dark pigment was subjected to physical and chemical analysis. This biopolymer was used as a reducing and stabilizing agent for the synthesis of silver and gold nanostructures. These nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Visible spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies, and electron microscopy. Silver nanoparticles were evaluated for anti-fungal activity.ResultsThe pigment isolated from Y. lipolytica was identified as melanin. The induced pigment reduced silver nitrate and chloroauric acid to silver and gold nanostructures, respectively. The silver nanoparticles were smaller in size (7 nm) and displayed excellent anti-fungal properties towards an Aspergillus sp. isolated from a wall surface. An application of these nanoparticles as effective paint-additives has been demonstrated.ConclusionThe yeast mediated enhanced production of the metal-ion-reducing pigment, melanin. A simple and rapid method for the extracellular synthesis of nanoparticles with paint-additive-application was developed.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Apte et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.