Bacteria are ubiquitous in terrestrial and aquatic environments and perform critical functions within these ecosystems. The interaction of bacteria with nanomaterials released into such environments may elicit adverse effects or result in nanoparticle transformation. One of the primary modes of nanomaterial interaction with bacteria involves contact with the bacterial cell surface. Our objective was to determine the critical chemical components of Gram-positive bacterial cell surfaces that govern nanoparticle interaction. To study these interactions, we isolated peptidoglycan cell walls with covalently bound wall teichoic acids (anionic glycopolymers) from three Bacillus subtilis bacterial strains. The strains vary in their wall teichoic acid composition but are otherwise identical. We investigated the interaction of cationic nanoparticles with the isolated cell walls from the three strains. Results from fluorescence-activated cell sorting with whole-cell bacteria indicate significantly less nanoparticle association to the strain lacking alanine in their wall teichoic acids. 31P 1D and 13C-13C 2D solid-state NMR results, using the isolated surface components, suggest positively charged gold nanoparticles associate differently with the three strains, indicating a dependence on wall teichoic acid composition. We expect that our results will ultimately inform the assessment of risk posed by nanomaterials released into the environment, as well as nanoparticle manufacturing to modulate interactions with Gram-positive bacteria.

Nanoparticle interaction with isolated Gram-positive bacterial cell walls

255th National Meeting (2018)

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