title: Fungal biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles: mechanism and scale up.
abstract: Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are a widespread research tool because of their oxidation resistance, biocompatibility and stability. Chemical methods for AuNP synthesis often produce toxic residues that raise environmental concern. On the other hand, the biological synthesis of AuNPs in viable microorganisms and their cell-free extracts is an environmentally friendly and low-cost process. In general, fungi tolerate higher metal concentrations than bacteria and secrete abundant extracellular redox proteins to reduce soluble metal ions to their insoluble form and eventually to nanocrystals. Fungi harbour untapped biological diversity and may provide novel metal reductases for metal detoxification and bioreduction. A thorough understanding of the biosynthetic mechanism of AuNPs in fungi is needed to reduce the time of biosynthesis and to scale up the AuNP production process. In this review, we describe the known mechanisms for AuNP biosynthesis in viable fungi and fungal protein extracts and discuss the most suitable bioreactors for industrial AuNP biosynthesis.
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Dublin, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitching
authors.affiliation: Center for Materials science and Nano Devices, Department of Physics, SRM University, Kattankulathur, India.
authors.forename: Meghana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramani
authors.affiliation: Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub, Dublin City University, Dublin, Dublin 9, Ireland.|Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637551, Singapore.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marsili
mesh_terms: D019149:Bioreactors; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D005658:Fungi / Q000378:metabolism*; D006046:Gold / Q000378:metabolism*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006046:Gold