Nanobionics by inheritance
Biologists "fed" bacteria with nanotubes
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
Swiss biologists have demonstrated a method that allows the introduction of carbon nanotubes into bacterial cells. Such microbes can form the basis of new biotechnologies, the creation of living sensors and energy sources. Moreover, they pass on their nanotubes to the next generations, demonstrating the first example of "inherited nanobionics". Scientists from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) write about this in an article for the journal Nature Nanotechnology (Antonucci et al., Carbon nanotube uptake in cyanobacteria for near-infrared imaging and enhanced bioelectricity generation in living photovoltaics).
Swiss biologists have demonstrated a method that allows the introduction of carbon nanotubes into bacterial cells. Such microbes can form the basis of new biotechnologies, the creation of living sensors and energy sources. Moreover, they pass on their nanotubes to the next generations, demonstrating the first example of "inherited nanobionics". Scientists from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) write about this in an article for the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Single—walled carbon nanotubes are thin and hollow graphene strands with walls only one atom thick. They have a number of unusual properties, including enormous strength and electrical conductivity. Until now, nanotubes have been introduced only into eukaryotic cells, which capture them using various forms of endocytosis. This allows, for example, to study the reactions taking place inside or to develop new tools for the "point" delivery of drugs to diseased tissues.
In contrast, bacterial cells are not capable of endocytosis and also carry external walls that make it difficult for them to absorb objects as large as nanotubes. To achieve this, the team of EPFL Professor Ardemis Boghossian coated nanotubes with positively charged proteins. This design is attracted to the negative-charge-bearing outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria.
Experiments with two types of such microbes — Synechocystis and Nostoc — have shown that nanotubes passively penetrate cells. They can be used to observe intracellular processes due to the fluorescence of nanotubes in the near infrared range. Without losing this opportunity, scientists tracked the growth and division of bacteria and found that nanotubes are transmitted from the mother cell to the daughter cells.
"We call this 'heritable nanobionics,'— says Professor Bogosian. — It's like having an artificial limb that gives you more opportunities than a natural one. And also imagine that children can inherit these opportunities from you."
In addition, bacteria "equipped" with nanotubes can dramatically increase the performance of microbial fuel cells. Such devices make it possible to generate "green" electricity with the help of microorganisms — for example, photosynthetic ones. Synechocystis and Nostoc, which scientists have experimented with, are just such cyanobacteria. In an experimental microbial fuel cell, they generated 15 times more electricity with nanotubes than without.
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