Azerbaijan National Academy of Science

According to researchers from the University of Geneva and the University of California, Santa Barbara, silver nanoparticles have a detrimental effect on microscopic algae called "Poterioochromonas malhamensis". The research was published in "Scientific Reports".

When algae are grown with silver nanoparticles, their metabolism of amino acids, nucleotides and fatty acids is disrupted. Amino acids are needed for proteins, nucleotides are needed for DNA and RNA, and there can be no membrane without fatty acids. That is, nanoparticles had to sense all the molecular-biochemical processes in the cell.

In algae that accumulate silver ions, the inner membrane is extremely permeable, oxidation is increased, and as a result, photosynthesis is weakened - the algae's oxygen production is reduced.