Global Advanced Research Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (GARJMMS) ISSN: 2315-5159
September 2015 Vol. 4(9), pp. 366-382
Copyright © 2015 Global Advanced Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Screening of Fusarium spp Resistance to Silver Ions for Ability to Synthesize Silver Nanoparticles from Egyptian Soils

Mohamed Medhat Ghareib¹, Magdy Attia², Nemat M. Awad², Magdi Z. Matter¹ and Dina El-Kahky¹*

¹Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Cairo, Egypt.
²Agricultural Microbiology Department, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth Street, (former El- Tahrir Street,) Dokki, Giza, Egypt. Postal Code: 12622.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: d_elkahkey@yahoo.com; Tel.: +20123268805, 0202 22620373; Fax: 0202 6203731

Accepted 31 August, 2015

Abstract

Six isolates of Fusarium (T18, T22, TA, MB, KHG and KHD) were resistant to up to 2 mM silver nitrate. These isolates were screened for their ability to synthesize silver nanoparticles from silver nitrate (AgNO₃). From the results of colour change and UV-Visible spectra, only three isolates (T18, TA, and KHG) showed brown colour and strong surface plasmon resonance centered at around ca. 420 nm, is characteristic of colloidal silver. Hence, further work was carried out with these isolates. These Fusarium strains that were to synthesize silver nanoparticles were identified as the general Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium solani, based on the morphological characteristics and sequence analysis of 18S rRNA. The extracellular productions of silver nanoparticles by the three strains of Fusarium were investigated. It was found that exposure of Fusarium to silver ion leads to the formation of silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were examined using UV-Visible spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The silver nanoparticles were in the range of 5-80 nm in dimension.

Keywords: Egyptian soils, Fusarium spp., silver ion, silver nanoparticles ,FTIR, TEM, UV, XRD.

List of Abbreviations

FTIR, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy Analysis; KH, Kafr El-Sheikh;  M, El-Mahalla; NPs, nanoparticles; SEM, scanningelectron microscope; T, Tanta; TEM, transmission electron microscope; X-ray spectroscopy