Open AccessManganese in biogenic magnetite crystals from magnetotactic bacteria
Author(s) -
Keim Caroli.,
Lins Ulysses,
Farina Marcos
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2009.01499.x
Subject(s) - magnetotactic bacteria , magnetosome , magnetite , greigite , manganese , cobalt , biomineralization , abiogenic petroleum origin , chemistry , materials science , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , methane , engineering
Magnetotactic bacteria produce either magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) or greigite (Fe 3 S 4 ) crystals in cytoplasmic organelles called magnetosomes. Whereas greigite magnetosomes can contain up to 10 atom% copper, magnetite produced by magnetotactic bacteria was considered chemically pure for a long time and this characteristic was used to distinguish between biogenic and abiogenic crystals. Recently, it was shown that magnetosomes containing cobalt could be produced by three strains of Magnetospirillum . Here we show that magnetite crystals produced by uncultured magnetotactic bacteria can incorporate manganese up to 2.8 atom% of the total metal content (Fe+Mn) when manganese chloride is added to microcosms. Thus, chemical purity can no longer be taken as a strict prerequisite to consider magnetite crystals to be of biogenic origin.