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Biomineralization of Iron Sulfides in Magnetotactic Bacteria from Sulfidic Environments

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Iron Biominerals

Abstract

Magnetotactic bacteria contain intracellular iron mineral inclusions termed magnetosomes (Balkwill et al., 1980) which impart a permanent magnetic dipole moment to the cell resulting in its alignment and navigation in magnetic fields (Blakemore, 1975, 1982; Frankel, 1984). Various methods have been used to determine the mineral phase of the magnetosomes including Mössbauer spectroscopy, x-ray powder diffraction, selected area/micro-electron diffraction, and energy dispersive x-ray analysis (Frankel et al., 1979; Towe and Moench, 1981; Sparks et al., 1990). The particles in almost all magnetotactic bacteria have been shown to consist of the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4) (Frankel et al., 1979; Towe and Moench, 1981; Matsuda et al., 1983; Mann et al., 1987; Bazylinski et al., 1988), sometimes admixed with hydrous ferric oxide, a precursor to Fe3O4 precipitation (Frankel et al., 1983; Bazylinski et al., 1988).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anaerobic Microbiology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Dennis A. Bazylinski

  2. Department of Physics, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA

    Richard B. Frankel

  3. Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Anthony J. Garratt-Reed

  4. School of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    Stephen Mann

Authors
  1. Dennis A. Bazylinski
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  2. Richard B. Frankel
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  3. Anthony J. Garratt-Reed
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  4. Stephen Mann
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA

    Richard B. Frankel

  2. University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA

    Richard P. Blakemore

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Bazylinski, D.A., Frankel, R.B., Garratt-Reed, A.J., Mann, S. (1991). Biomineralization of Iron Sulfides in Magnetotactic Bacteria from Sulfidic Environments. In: Frankel, R.B., Blakemore, R.P. (eds) Iron Biominerals. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3810-3_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3810-3_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6699-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3810-3

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