2023/10/30 by Benjamin P. Burke, Gang Fan, Pris Wasuwanich +2 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Materials Science · Environmental Science · #Nanoparticles: synthesis and applications #Microplastics and Plastic Pollution #Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/jacsau.3c00426
openalex publication_date 2023/10/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Chemical fertilizers have been crucial for sustaining the current global population by supplementing overused farmland to support consistent food production, but their use is unsustainable. Pseudomonas chlororaphis is a nitrogen-fixing bacterium that could be used as a fertilizer replacement, but this microbe is delicate. It is sensitive to stressors, such as freeze-drying and high temperatures. Here, we demonstrate protection of P. chlororaphis from freeze-drying, high temperatures (50 o C), and high humidity using self-assembling metal-phenolic network (MPN) coatings. The composition of the MPN is found to significantly impact its protective efficacy, and with optimized compositions, no viability loss is observed for MPN-coated microbes under conditions where uncoated cells do not survive. Further, we demonstrate that MPN-coated microbes improve germination of seeds by 150% as compared to those treated with fresh P. chlororaphis . Taken together, these results demonstrate the protective capabilities of MPNs against environmental stressors and represent a critical step towards enabling the production and storage of delicate microbes under nonideal conditions.