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Isolation of magnetotactic bacterium WM-1 from freshwater sediment and phylogenetic characterization

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Abstract

The magnetotactic bacterium was isolated from freshwater sediment from North Lake of Wuhan. The isolate, designated WM-1, was Gram-negative, helical shaped, and studied by means of electron microscopy. The strain WM-1 was 0.2-0.4 μm in diameter and 3–4 μm in length. The DNA G + C content was found to be 65.7 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA gene (Accession number DQ899734 in GeneBank) revealed that this isolate was a member ofαsubdivision of the Proteobacteria. Strain WM-1 was closely related (97.7%) to Magnetospirillum sp. AMB-1. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis showed that these two strains were in fact different strains. Electron diffraction patterns of WM-1 magnetosomes indicated that the magnetosomes were composed of magnetite. The magnetosomes from WM-1 were cuboidal in shape as observed by electron microscopy. Statistical analysis of magnetite crystals from WM-1 showed narrow asymmetric size distribution. The average number of magnetosomes in each WM-1 bacterium was 8 ± 3.4. The average length of magnetosomes in WM-1 was 54 ± 12.3 nm and the average width is 43 ± 10.9 nm. These data showed that the grains in WM-1 were single-domain crystals.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Tong-Ruei Li (Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, USA) for helpful suggestions, advice and comments. We are grateful to Ms. Xiu-hua Yuan (Insitute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) and Professor Ping-he Li (The Technique Center of Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation, China) for the TEM assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Li Wenbing, Yu Longjiang, Zhou Pengpeng & Zhu Min

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  1. Li Wenbing
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  2. Yu Longjiang
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  3. Zhou Pengpeng
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  4. Zhu Min
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Correspondence to Yu Longjiang.

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Wenbing, L., Longjiang, Y., Pengpeng, Z. et al. Isolation of magnetotactic bacterium WM-1 from freshwater sediment and phylogenetic characterization. Arch Microbiol 188, 97–102 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-007-0231-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-007-0231-z

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