Accumulation of nanoparticles in " jellyfish " mucus: a bio-inspired route to decontamination of nano-waste

Amit Patwa (1, 2) , Alain Thiéry (3) , Fabien Lombard (4) , Martin K.S. Lilley (4, 3) , Claire Boisset (5) , Jean-François Bramard (6) , Jean-Yves Bottero (7) , Philippe Barthélémy (2, 1)

1 ARN : régulations naturelle et artificielle
2 UB - Université de Bordeaux
3 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale
4 LOV - Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche
5 CERMAV - Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules Végétales
6 Cambulle
7 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement

The economic and societal impacts of nano-materials are enormous. However, releasing such materials in the environment could be detrimental to human health and the ecological biosphere. Here we demonstrate that gold and quantum dots nanoparticles bio-accumulate into mucus materials coming from natural species such as jellyfish. One strategy that emerges from this finding would be to take advantage of these trapping properties to remove nanoparticles from contaminated water.

Keywords: TRANSLOCATION; GREEN-FLUORESCENT PROTEIN; MONTE-CARLO SIMULATIONS; PELAGIA-NOCTILUCA; OXIDE NANOPARTICLES; MASS-SPECTROMETRY; DAPHNIA-MAGNA; NANOMATERIALS; GLYCOMICS; WATER

Domains: Environmental Sciences; Biodiversity and Ecology

Amit Patwa, Alain Thiéry, Fabien Lombard, Martin K.S. Lilley, Claire Boisset, et al.. Accumulation of nanoparticles in " jellyfish " mucus: a bio-inspired route to decontamination of nano-waste. Scientific Reports, 2015, 5, pp.11387 ⟨10.1038/srep11387⟩. ⟨hal-01202430⟩