Method for Assessing the Potential Effects of Nanoparticles and other Emerging Contaminants on the Catabolic Capabilities of Microbiological Communities

Published

September 30, 2013

Author(s)

Kela Weber, Elijah Petersen, Sonja Bissegger, L. Rehmann, Robin Slawson, Raymond Legge, Denis O'Carroll

Abstract

With an increasing utilization of nanoparticles (NPs) in consumer products, the potential for release to the environment also increases. It is thus imperative that methods to test their potential effects in ecosystems are developed. This study describes an ex-situ methodology to gain a priori knowledge on the potential for NPs, or other possible emerging contaminants, to affect the catabolic capabilities of naturally occurring microbiological communities. Microbial communities were incubated with pre-specified carbon sources and 10 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) or an antibiotic as a positive control on 96 well micro-titre plates (BIOLOGTM ECO plate). From the results of the positive control study, the effect a toxicant can have on overall community catabolic capabilities and the community's ability to assimilate or degrade specific carbon sources or groups of carbon sources could be assessed through dose-response curves. The impact of AuNPs on environmental microbiological community's was that that rhizospheric community's from Typha roots were only slightly catabolically inhibited, no effects were seen on wetland water communities, and a minor positive (i.e., helpful) effect was observed for soil communities. This positive effect may be due to a thin layer of citrate found on NIST AuNPs which initiated co-metabolism with some of the carbon sources studied. Based upon the conditions studied, the possible negative effect of AuNPs on the catabolic capabilities of microbiological communities appear to be minimal.

Citation

Journal of Microbiological Methods

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Weber, K. , Petersen, E. , Bissegger, S. , Rehmann, L. , Slawson, R. , Legge, R. and O'Carroll, D. (2013), Method for Assessing the Potential Effects of Nanoparticles and other Emerging Contaminants on the Catabolic Capabilities of Microbiological Communities, Journal of Microbiological Methods, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911410 (Accessed April 25, 2024)