We have previously discovered that baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cervisiae, when grown in a static magnetic field (SMF), experiences significant oxidative stress including changes to antioxidant defenses. Furthermore, when grown in the presence of silver nitrate, yeast biosynthesize highly-crystalline silver nanoparticles (NP) extracellularly. However, yeast grown in SMF produce NPs with significantly smaller average diameter (2 nm) compared to controls grown in absence of SMF (20 nm). The smaller NPs are much more toxic to bacteria than controls. These are the first observations to our knowledge:
We propose exploring in more detail the biochemical basis of these phenomena and whether they can be generalized as a green chemistry approach to biosynthesis in other NPs. We also will explore varying SMF field strength as a novel strategy to “tune” NP diameter.
