An acidic protein aligns magnetosomes along a filamentous structure in magnetotactic bacteria

André Scheffel, Manuela Gruska, Damien Faivre, Alexandros Linaroudis, Jürgen M. Plitzko and Dirk Schüler ()
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André Scheffel: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Manuela Gruska: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Damien Faivre: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Alexandros Linaroudis: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Jürgen M. Plitzko: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Dirk Schüler: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Nature, 2006, vol. 440, issue 7080, 110-114

Abstract: To the ends of the Earth Aquatic magnetobacteria are able to navigate along Earth's magnetic field thanks to organelles called magnetosomes. In these, magnetite crystals are enclosed in a membrane and arranged in chains so as to act rather like compass needles. A gene cluster in the magnetobacterium Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense was recently implicated in magnetosome formation. Now one of its genes, mamJ, is shown to code for a protein similar in structure to those controlling biomineralization in bones. In the absence of this protein, the magnetosomes collapse. MamJ protein seems to act by connecting empty vesicles to the filamentous structure, so that magnetite crystals then grow within the vesicles.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04382

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