在多细胞生物进化之前，微生物就已经在世界上殖民了。随着显微镜的出现，它们的存在以及它们所调节的与人类直接利益相关的巨大过程对人类来说变得显而易见。引起研究人员兴趣的过程之一是在有毒金属存在下生长的能力。该过程似乎很简单，金属离子被隔离到包涵体或细胞表面，从而能够转化为无毒的纳米结构。然而，基因组测序技术的发现强调了这些微生物的基因构成是这些现象的一个典型方面。这些微生物中金属抗性基因（MRG）的发现表明这些过程的调节相当复杂。由于大多数 MRG 都是质粒编码的，因此它们可以水平转移。随着纳米粒子的发现及其从聚合物化学到药物输送的许多应用，对纳米粒子合成创新技术的需求急剧增加。现在已经确定，纳米颗粒的微生物合成比现有的化学方法具有许多优势。然而，正是生物技术、分子生物学、代谢工程、合成生物学和基因工程工具的明确使用彻底改变了微生物纳米技术的世界。对微生物生命的微米级甚至纳米级组装的详细研究也引起了生物学家和工程师的兴趣，他们希望产生模仿细菌鞭毛马达的分子马达。在这篇综述中，我们强调了生物工程工具在开发微生物纳米颗粒合成领域的重要性和巨大的潜在潜力。我们还强调了面向应用的特定调制，这些调制可以在这些纳米颗粒的合成涉及的阶段中完成。最后，还讨论了这些纳米颗粒在自然生态系统中的作用。

"点击查看英文标题和摘要"

Micro-organisms colonized the world before the multi-cellular organisms evolved. With the advent of microscopy, their existence became evident to the mankind and also the vast processes they regulate, that are in direct interest of the human beings. One such process that intrigued the researchers is the ability to grow in presence of toxic metals. The process seemed to be simple with the metal ions being sequestrated into the inclusion bodies or cell surfaces enabling the conversion into nontoxic nanostructures. However, the discovery of genome sequencing techniques highlighted the genetic makeup of these microbes as a quintessential aspect of these phenomena. The findings of metal resistance genes (MRG) in these microbes showed a rather complex regulation of these processes. Since most of these MRGs are plasmid encoded they can be transferred horizontally. With the discovery of nanoparticles and their many applications from polymer chemistry to drug delivery, the demand for innovative techniques of nanoparticle synthesis increased dramatically. It is now established that microbial synthesis of nanoparticles provides numerous advantages over the existing chemical methods. However, it is the explicit use of biotechnology, molecular biology, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and genetic engineering tools that revolutionized the world of microbial nanotechnology. Detailed study of the micro and even nanolevel assembly of microbial life also intrigued biologists and engineers to generate molecular motors that mimic bacterial flagellar motor. In this review, we highlight the importance and tremendous hidden potential of bio-engineering tools in exploiting the area of microbial nanoparticle synthesis. We also highlight the application oriented specific modulations that can be done in the stages involved in the synthesis of these nanoparticles. Finally, the role of these nanoparticles in the natural ecosystem is also addressed.