Specific Adsorption of Silver (I) from the Aqueous Phase by Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cells with Enhanced Displaying CueR Protein.

Three types of CueR proteins were anchored on the surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells via surface display technology. The surface-engineered cells showed enhanced adsorption capacity and specificity toward Ag (I) in aqueous phase than control groups. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the resistance of the surface-engineered cells toward environmental changes including pH, temperature, and eluent. The surface-engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells had the highest adsorption capacity of 2.799 mg=g, which was 87.3% higher than original cells. The engineered cells were able to tolerate an acidic environment (pH = 3.0 to 5.0) and high temperature (up to 50°C) with relatively stable adsorption performance. Desorption efficiency was 11% (pH = 5.0, 1 mM eluent), which implied the absorbed Ag (I) ions bonded to the cells with high affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]