Wall Teichoic Acids Govern Cationic Gold Nanoparticle Interaction With Gram-positive Bacterial Cell Walls

Authors

Emily R. Caudill, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rodrigo Tapia Hernandez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Kyle P. Johnson, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
James T. O'Rourke, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lingchao Zhu, University of Pennsylvania
Christy L. Haynes, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Z. Vivian Feng, Augsburg UniversityFollow
Joel Pederson, University of Wisconsin-Madison

ORCID

0000-0002-3329-3781

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-23-2020

DOI

10.1039/c9sc05436g

Abstract

Molecular-level understanding of nanomaterial interactions with bacterial cell surfaces can facilitate design of antimicrobial and antifouling surfaces and inform assessment of potential consequences of nanomaterial release into the environment. Here, we investigate the interaction of cationic nanoparticles with the main surface components of Gram-positive bacteria: peptidoglycan and teichoic acids. We employed intact cells and isolated cell walls from wild type Bacillus subtilis and two mutant strains differing in wall teichoic acid composition to investigate interaction with gold nanoparticles functionalized with cationic, branched polyethylenimine. We quantified nanoparticle association with intact cells by flow cytometry and determined sites of interaction by solid-state 31P- and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. We find that wall teichoic acid structure and composition were important determinants for the extent of interaction with cationic gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles interacted more with wall teichoic acids from the wild type and mutant lacking glucose in its wall teichoic acids than those from the mutant having wall teichoic acids lacking alanine and exhibiting more restricted molecular motion. Our experimental evidence supports the interpretation that electrostatic forces contributed to nanoparticle–cell interactions and that the accessibility of negatively charged moieties in teichoic acid chains influences the degree of interaction. The approaches employed in this study can be applied to engineered nanomaterials differing in core composition, shape, or surface functional groups as well as to other types of bacteria to elucidate the influence of nanoparticle and cell surface properties on interactions with Gram-positive bacteria.

Comments

Final version published in the journal Chemical Science by the Royal Society of Chemistry at https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SC05436G

Recommended Citation

Caudill, E.R.; Hernandez, R.T.; Johnson, K.P.; O'Rourke, J.T.; Zhu, L.; Haynes, C.L.; Feng; Z.V.*; Pedersen, J.A.*, “Wall teichoic acids govern cationic gold nanoparticle interaction with Gram-positive bacterial cell walls”, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 4106-4188.