For large-scale synthesis of nanoparticles in bioreactors, filamentous fungi are better agents for biomass production in comparison to algae and bacteria, since fungal mycelial mat can withstand flow pressure, agitation, and other conditions in the find more bioreactors [12]. Extracellular secretion of reductive proteins aids in extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles avoiding unnecessary cellular interference, and selleck inhibitor therefore, it is suitable for direct use in various applications. There are reports of mycosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using phytopathogenic fungi like Fusarium acuminatum [13], Aspergillus flavus [14], Alternaria

alternata [15], Coriolus versicolor [16], Penicillium fellutanum [17], and Fusarium semitectum [18]. Some fungi investigated were found to be capable of both extra- and intracellular biosynthesis of Ag-NPs having different particle sizes and shapes, but extracellular production of nanoparticles is more desirable from the point of view of easy isolation. Nanoparticles have some unique size- and shape-dependent physical and optical properties [19]. These unique characters are often responsible for their toxicity to various kinds of microbes such as bacteria, fungi, and also cancerous cells [20–22]. Hence, studies are going on regarding

their utility in the diagnosis as well as treatment of different kinds of diseases [23, 24]. In this regard, the presence of protein capping material is advantageous because this acts as the anchoring Decitabine mouse layer for drug or genetic materials learn more to be transported into human cells [25]. The presence of a nontoxic protein cap also increases uptake and retention inside human cells [26]. The present study deals with the extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles, using

cell-free extract of phytopathogenic soil-borne fungus Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid, the causal organism of charcoal rot disease of about 500 agronomical important crops all over the world [27]. It describes not only a new method of green synthesis of silver nanoparticles but also their physical attributes, antibacterial activity against human and plant pathogenic multidrug-resistant bacteria, the inhibitory effect on the growth kinetics of microbes, the capping material around the silver nanoparticles, as well as their genotoxic effect. Methods M. phaseolina was grown in PDA medium at 28°C and was used for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The mycelium from solid substrate was inoculated in 50 ml potato dextrose broth (PDB) in 250-ml Erlenmeyer flasks and incubated at 28°C for 5 days. The fully expanded mycelial mat was harvested aseptically and washed with sterile distilled water to remove media components.