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A new extracellular von Willebrand A domain-containing protein is involved in silver uptake in Microcystis aeruginosa exposed to silver nanoparticles

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can be toxic for cyanobacteria when present at low nanomolar concentrations, but the molecular mechanisms whereby AgNPs (or free Ag+ released from AgNPs) interact with these prokaryotic algal cells remain elusive. Here, we studied Ag uptake mechanisms in the prokaryotic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa exposed to AgNPs by measuring growth inhibition in the absence or presence of high-affinity Ag-binding ligands and by genetic transformation of E. coli with a protein predicted to be involved in Ag uptake. We discovered a new von Willebrand A (vWA) domain-containing protein in M. aeruginosa that mediates Ag uptake from AgNPs when expressed in E. coli. This new Ag transport protein, which is absent in eukaryotic algae, is a potential candidate explaining the higher AgNPs toxicity in cyanobacteria such as M. aeruginosa than that in eukaryotic algae. The present study provides new insights on Ag uptake mechanisms in the prokaryotic algae M. aeruginosa.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the program for the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 21277125 and 21577128) and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number LR14B070001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310032, People’s Republic of China

    Si Chen

  2. College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310032, People’s Republic of China

    Yujian Jin, Kun Zhu & Zhengwei Fu

  3. Quebec-Ocean and Takuvik Joint International Research Unit, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

    Michel Lavoie

  4. College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People’s Republic of China

    Haiping Lu

  5. College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310032, People’s Republic of China

    Haifeng Qian

Authors
  1. Si Chen
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  2. Yujian Jin
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  3. Michel Lavoie
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  4. Haiping Lu
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  5. Kun Zhu
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  6. Zhengwei Fu
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  7. Haifeng Qian
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Correspondence to Haifeng Qian.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any experiments involving human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Chen, S., Jin, Y., Lavoie, M. et al. A new extracellular von Willebrand A domain-containing protein is involved in silver uptake in Microcystis aeruginosa exposed to silver nanoparticles. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 8955–8963 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7728-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7728-9

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