Toxicity of differently sized and coated silver nanoparticles to the bacterium Pseudomonas putida

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1 Acremann Section, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (NERC), Crowmarsh Gifford, OX10 8BB, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
2 Department of Materials, Oxford University, Begbroke Science Park, Oxford, United Kingdom
3 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.26v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Ecotoxicology, Environmental Sciences, Microbiology, Toxicology
Keywords
ecotoxicology, growth inhibition, silver nanoparticles, silver nitrate, environmental hazard assessment, gram-negative, Pseudomonas putida
Copyright
© 2013 Matzke et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Cite this article
Matzke M, Jurkschat K, Backhaus T. 2013. Toxicity of differently sized and coated silver nanoparticles to the bacterium Pseudomonas putida . PeerJ PrePrints 1:e26v1

Abstract

Aim of this study was to describe the toxicity of a set of different commercially available silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to the gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas putida (growth inhibition assay according to ISO 10712) in order to contribute to their environmental hazard assessment. Different AgNP sizes and coatings were selected in order to analyze whether those characteristics are determinants of nanoparticle toxicity. Silver nitrate was tested for comparison. In general Pseudomonas putida reacted very sensitive towards the exposure to silver, with an EC 10 value of 0.058 μg/L for AgNO 3 and between 0.15 and 4.93 µg/L for the different AgNPs (EC 50 values 0.16 µg/L for AgNO3, resp. between 0.25 and 13.5 μg/L for AgNPs). The results indicate that the toxicity is driven by the Ag + ions, implying that an environmental hazard assessment for microorganisms based on total silver concentration and the assumption that AgNPs dissolve is sufficiently protective. The characterization of particle behavior as well as the total and dissolved silver content in the medium during the exposures was not possible due to the high sensitivity of Pseudomonas (test concentrations were well below detection limits), indicating the need for further development in the analytical domain.

Supplemental Information

Silver exposure data and references

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26v1/supp-1