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Swimming behaviour of the multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’ under applied magnetic fields and ultraviolet light

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Abstract

Magnetotactic bacteria move by rotating their flagella and concomitantly are aligned to magnetic fields because they present magnetosomes, which are intracellular organelles composed by membrane-bound magnetic crystals. This results in magnetotaxis, which is swimming along magnetic field lines. Magnetotactic bacteria are morphologically diverse, including cocci, rods, spirilla and multicellular forms known as magnetotactic multicellular prokaryotes (MMPs). ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’ is presently the best known MMP. Here we describe the helical trajectories performed by these microorganisms as they swim forward, as well as their response to UV light. We measured the radius of the trajectory, time period and translational velocity (velocity along the helix axis), which enabled the calculation of other trajectory parameters such as pitch, tangential velocity (velocity along the helix path), angular frequency, and theta angle (the angle between the helix path and the helix axis). The data revealed that ‘Ca. M. multicellularis’ swims along elongated helical trajectories with diameters approaching the diameter of the microorganism. In addition, we observed that ‘Ca. M. multicellularis’ responds to UV laser pulses by swimming backwards, returning to forward swimming several seconds after the UV laser pulse. UV light from a fluorescence microscope showed a similar effect. Thus, phototaxis is used in addition to magnetotaxis in this microorganism.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Leida Gomes Abraçado, Carlos Van Der Ley and Karen T. Silva for help in adaptation of the coils to the microscope. This work was supported by the Brazilian agencies CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível superior) and FAPERJ (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Ciência no Estado do Rio de Janeiro).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-902, Brazil

    Fernando P. Almeida, Ulysses Lins & Carolina N. Keim

  2. Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Nathan B. Viana

  3. Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Marcos Farina

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  1. Fernando P. Almeida
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  2. Nathan B. Viana
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  3. Ulysses Lins
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  4. Marcos Farina
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  5. Carolina N. Keim
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Correspondence to Carolina N. Keim.

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Almeida, F.P., Viana, N.B., Lins, U. et al. Swimming behaviour of the multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’ under applied magnetic fields and ultraviolet light. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 103, 845–857 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-012-9866-0

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