Characterization and ecotoxicological evaluation of fungal silver nanoparticles immobilized in alginate gel under marine and freshwater organisms of different trophic levels

• Grant number: 23/08202-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 25, 2023
• End date: April 24, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Cristiane Angélica Ottoni
• Grantee: Carolina Assis da Silva
• Supervisor: Roberto Carlos Domingues Martins
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB-CLP). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Aveiro (UA), Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/05716-3 - Implementation of packed-bed reactor using mycological silver nanoparticles immobilized in alginate for water disinfection contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, BP.MS

Abstract

The biosynthesis of nanoparticles (NP) occurs through an easy, economical, efficient and environmentally sustainable synthesis process, and is currently considered an emerging approach in the field of green nanotechnology. The application of filamentous fungi (Ff) for NP synthesis has advantages over other microorganisms. Among the different NPs biosynthesized by Ff, silver NPs (AgNP) have received special attention due to their proven antimicrobial properties. However, studies related to the ecotoxicity of biological AgNP (bio-AgNP) are still scarce. Sensitivity tests using freshwater and marine organisms, belonging to different trophic levels, are essential, since they can corroborate for the possible expansion in the production and use of biological AgNP. Given this context, the present study aims to characterize fungal silver nanoparticles (AgNP) immobilized in alginate gel by different morphological and structural techniques and to evaluate the ecotoxicity in freshwater and marine organisms, belonging to different trophic levels. For each ecotoxicity test, the normality of the data distribution will be evaluated (Shapiro-Wilk test) and its homoscedasticity (Levene test), a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be performed, with ±=0, 05, later using a test of multiple comparisons with the control (Dunnett's test). In this step, the no observed effect concentration (NOEC) will be estimated for each species, deriving the predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) statistic. (AU)