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Investigating soil and ATCC bacterial strains for their ability to synthesize anisotropic gold nanoparticles

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The current study investigated 17 bacterial strains for their ability to synthesize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from the aryldiazonium gold(III) salt (DS-AuCl 4 ). The study aims to investigate the ability of bacterial cell biomass in the stationary phase of growth to synthesize AuNPs at 28 °C and 37 °C. Eleven bacterial strains were isolated from soil and identified using the VITEK® 2 system and 16S rRNA sequencing. An additional six strains were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). The investigated Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains successfully produced anisotropic AuNPs at a cell density of 2.0 McFarland (6.0 × 10 8 CFU/mL). Nanoparticle formation was faster when samples were incubated at 37 °C than at 28 °C across all bacterial strains. The results of UV-vis spectroscopy confirmed the presence of AuNPs, with peaks observed centered at 550 nm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) revealed a variety of morphologies, including spheres, rods, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, irregular shapes, and flower-like structures. Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria synthesized AuNPs of sizes 38.7 ± 26.0 and 34.0 ± 18.6 nm, respectively. Lattice-spacing analysis confirmed the formation of metallic AuNPs. Energy-dispersed X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) validated the presence of gold in the samples, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the elemental composition of AuNPs at 84.0 eV. These nanoparticles have potential applications in cancer therapy and diagnosis, antibacterial treatments, and drug delivery. Key points • The AuNPs were synthesized using various bacterial strains • The gold precursor is aryldiazonium gold(III) salt • Various anisotropic morphologies were obtained Graphical abstract Created in BioRender. Ahmady, I. (2025)

Source: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

DOI: 10.1007/s00253-025-13689-7