Morphology manipulation of M13 bacteriophage template for nanostructure assembly

A gold-binding M13 bacteriophage was used as a model system to explore templating of inorganic material on geometrically transformed viruses. Gold-binding filamentous phage were converted to spheroid form with a short chloroform treatment, and the resulting morphology was investigated with electron microscopy. Binding studies revealed that spheroid-shaped gold-binding phage preserved its affinity for gold. Spheroids adhered to a planar substrate assembled clusters or rings of gold nanoparticles. This gold-binding phage served as a demonstration of a highly shape-modifiable viral-template for inorganic materials.