Enhanced Silver Nanoparticle Synthesis by Transformed with Metallothionein Gene.

In this study, the metallothionein gene of () was assembled by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), inserted into pUC19 vector, and further transformed into ) DH5α cells. The capacity of these recombinant DH5α cells to synthesize silver nanoparticles was examined. Our results demonstrated that the expression of metallothionein in promoted the bacterial tolerance to metal ions and increased yield of silver nanoparticle synthesis. The compositional and morphological analysis of the silver nanoparticles revealed that silver nanoparticles synthesized by the engineered cells are around 20 nm in size, and spherical in shape. Importantly, the silver nanoparticles produced by the engineered cells were more homogeneous in shape and size than those produced by bacteria lack of the metallothionein. Our study provided preliminary information for further development of the engineered as a platform for large-scale production of uniform nanoparticles for various applications in nanotechnology.