Nanobiotechnological Method for Studying Metabolically Active Natural Microbial Communities

An innovative nanobiotechnological express method for the detection of metabolically active microorganisms is proposed. The method is based on the inherent feature of microbial cells to generate metal nanoparticles during their metabolic activity in the process of reducing cations added in the system. The resulting nanoparticles are a new solid crystalline phase and can be detected with high accuracy by various physical methods. The technique was successfully tested and proved to be effective in the study of microbial activity in both samples from various cold ecosystems and pure psychoactive cultures from the genera Cryobacterium Methylophilus, Mycobacterium and Rhodococcus. This methodology can be used in ecology for monitoring the ecological state of natural ecosystems, in biotechnology for screening active samples when isolating industrially important microorganisms, and in astrobiology for identifying living metabolizing microbial cells in extraterrestrial environments