Graphene coated magnetic nanoparticles facilitate the release of biofuels and oleochemicals from yeast cell factories
Journal article, 2021

Engineering of microbial cells to produce high value chemicals is rapidly advancing. Yeast, bacteria and microalgae are being used to produce high value chemicals by utilizing widely available carbon sources. However, current extraction processes of many high value products from these cells are time- and labor-consuming and require toxic chemicals. This makes the extraction processes detrimental to the environment and not economically feasible. Hence, there is a demand for the development of simple, effective, and environmentally friendly method for the extraction of high value chemicals from these cell factories. Herein, we hypothesized that atomically thin edges of graphene having ability to interact with hydrophobic materials, could be used to extract high value lipids from cell factories. To achieve this, array of axially oriented graphene was deposited on iron nanoparticles. These coated nanoparticles were used to facilitate the release of intracellular lipids from Yarrowia lipolytica cells. Our treatment process can be integrated with the growth procedure and achieved the release of 50% of total cellular lipids from Y. lipolytica cells. Based on this result, we propose that nanoparticles coated with axially oriented graphene could pave efficient, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective way to release intracellular lipids from yeast cell factories.

Author

Santosh Pandit

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Oliver Konzock

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Kirsten Leistner

The MathWorks AB

Venkata Raghavendra Subrahmanya Sar Mokkapati

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Alessandra Merlo

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Jie Sun

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

Fuzhou University

Ivan Mijakovic

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

2D-Tech

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Scientific Reports

2045-2322 (ISSN) 20452322 (eISSN)

Vol. 11 1 20612

2D material-based technology for industrial applications (2D-TECH)

GKN Aerospace Sweden (2D-tech), 2021-01-01 -- 2024-12-31.

VINNOVA (2019-00068), 2020-05-01 -- 2024-12-31.

Subject Categories

Cell Biology

Other Chemistry Topics

Medical Materials

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-00189-7

PubMed

34663845

More information

Latest update

2/29/2024