Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

The role of the microbial origin and environment of the discharged nanomaterials in their shape change was investigated. Here, we show that the biogenic elemental selenium nanospheres (BioSe-Nanospheres) produced under mesophilic conditions (30 °C) by Escherichia coli K-12 remain spherically when exposed to heating (55 °C for 7 days), whereas those obtained by anaerobic granular sludge transform to biogenic elemental selenium nanorods (BioSe-Nanorods). The larger quantity of proteins present in the corona of the BioSe-Nanospheres produced by E. coli K-12 are responsible for their shape stability. However, the protein corona of BioSe-Nanospheres produced by E. coli K-12 was degraded by extracellular peptidases secreted upon co-incubation with Bacillus safensis JG-B5T bacteria, which led to their transformation to BioSe-Nanorods. This study consequently demonstrates that the shape of biogenic nanomaterials depends both on their microbial origin and microbial surrounding, which increases the complexity in determining their risk assessment.