Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 26, 2026

Growing Magnetotactic Bacteria of the Genus Magnetospirillum: Strains MSR-1, AMB-1 and MS-1
Published on: October 17, 2018
A cultured greigite-producing magnetotactic bacterium in a novel group of sulfate-reducing bacteria
Christopher T Lefèvre1, Nicolas Menguy, Fernanda Abreu
1Laboratoire de Bioénergétique Cellulaire, UMR 6191, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique Cadarache, Direction des Sciences du Vivant, Institut de Biologie Environnementale et Biotechnologie, Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France.
Abstract:
Magnetotactic bacteria contain magnetosomes--intracellular, membrane-bounded, magnetic nanocrystals of magnetite (Fe(3)O(4)) or greigite (Fe(3)S(4))--that cause the bacteria to swim along geomagnetic field lines. We isolated a greigite-producing magnetotactic bacterium from a brackish spring in Death Valley National Park, California, USA, strain BW-1, that is able to biomineralize greigite and magnetite depending on culture conditions. A phylogenetic comparison of BW-1 and similar uncultured greigite- and/or magnetite-producing magnetotactic bacteria from freshwater to hypersaline habitats shows that these organisms represent a previously unknown group of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the Deltaproteobacteria. Genomic analysis of BW-1 reveals the presence of two different magnetosome gene clusters, suggesting that one may be responsible for greigite biomineralization and the other for magnetite.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Other Unique Bacteria
Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria
Microbes and Other Elemental Cycles
Deep Sea Microbial Ecology
Hyperthermophilic Bacteria
Microbial Nutrition

