Magnetosome vesicles are present before magnetite formation, and MamA is required for their activation

Bacterial magnetosomes are intracellular compartments that house highly ordered magnetite crystals. By using Magnetospirillum sp. AMB-1 as a model system, we show that magnetosome vesicles exist in the absence of magnetite, biomineralization of magnetite proceeds simultaneously in multiple vesicles, and biomineralization proceeds from the same location in each vesicle. The magnetosome-associated protein, MamA, is required for the formation of functional magnetosome vesicles and displays a dynamic subcellular localization throughout the growth cycle of magnetotactic bacteria. Together, these results suggest that the magnetosome precisely coordinates magnetite biomineralization and can serve as a model system for the study of organelle biogenesis in noneukaryotic cells

Composition, Reactivity and Regulation of Extracellular Metal-Reducing Structures (Bacterial Nanowires) Produced by Dissimilatory Metal - Reducing Bacteria

Approach. Previously, using conventional and cryoTEM techniques, surface physicochemistry assays, NMR structural analysis, etc., we showed that the structure and composition of Shewanella's lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and capsular polysaccharide (PS) significantly determined overall cell surface physicochemistry. In our study a strong correlation between such macroscopic parameters as surface electronegativity, hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, and bacterial adhesion to hematite was observed. Rough LPS strains exhibited more than an order higher affinity and maximal sorption capacity to hematite when compared to encapsulated strains. These general trends, however, characterize bacterial adhesion only as a bulk process, being unable to reveal finer mechanisms taking place at the level of an individual cell. Cell surface physicochemical and structural heterogeneity suggests much more complex interactions at the bacterial-mineral interface than predicted by such approaches operating within macroscopic parameters

Formation and Reactivity of Biogenic Iron Microminerals

The overall purpose of the project was to explore and quantify the processes that control the formation and reactivity of biogenic iron microminerals and their impact on the solubility of metal contaminants. The research addressed how surface components of bacterial cells, extracellular organic material, and the aqueous geochemistry of the DIRB microenvironment impacts the mineralogy, chemical state and micromorphology of reduced iron phases

Formation and Reactivity of Biogenic Iron Microminerals

The overall purpose of the project is to explore and quantify the processes that control the formation and reactivity of biogenic iron microminerals, and the impact of these processes on the solubility of metal contaminants, e.g., uranium, chromium and nickel. The research addresses how surface components of bacterial cells, extracellular organic material, and the aqueous geochemistry of the DIRB microenvironment impacts the mineralogy, chemical state and micromorphology of reduced iron phases

Formation and Reactivity of Biogenic Iron Microminerals

The overall purpose of the project is to explore and quantify the processes that control the formation and reactivity of biogenic iron microminerals and their impact on the solubility of metal contaminants. The research addresses how surface components of bacterial cells, extracellular organic material, and the aqueous geochemistry of the DIRB microenvironment impacts the mineralogy, chemical state and micromorphology of reduced iron phases

Metal ions and bacreria

xi, 461 p. : il.; 23 c