Abstract
‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’ is a multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote found in the Araruama lagoon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This microorganism shows a photokinesis that depends on the incident light wavelength, but that dependence can be canceled by the presence of radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields. The present manuscript has as its aim to study the effect of light wavelength and RF fields on the U-turn time of ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’, a behavior more related to magnetotaxis. As the experiments were performed during the night, the microorganisms were greater in size than normal, indicating that they were in the process of division. Our results show that when normal in size, the microorganism’s U-turn time is modified by the light wavelength (lower for blue light than for green and red light), but RF fields do not affect that U-turn time dependence on the light wavelength. For the microorganism in the process of division, we describe for the first time how the photokinesis and U-turn time dependence on the light wavelength disappear. It is proposed that methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins are involved in that light wavelength dependence for the U-turn time, but still more studies are necessary to understand how RF fields cancel the photokinesis light wavelength dependence, but do not affect the dependence of the U-turn time.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Under request, the authors can send the videos and data that support our research.
References
Abreu F, Acosta-Avalos D (2018) Biology and Physics of magnetotactic bactéria. In: Blumenberg M, Shaaban M, Elgaml A (Eds.) Microorganisms. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79965
Abreu F, Martins JL, Silveira TS, Keim CN, Lins de Barros HGP, Gueiras-Filho F, Lins U (2007) ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’, a multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote from a hypersaline environment. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 57:1318–1322
Abreu F, Morillo V, Nascimento FF, Werneck C, Cantão ME, Ciapina LP, Almeida LGP, Lefevre CT, Bazylinski DA, Vasconcelos ATR, Lins U (2014) Deciphering unusual uncultured magnetotactic multicellular prokaryotes through genomics. ISME J 8:1055–1068
Acosta-Avalos D, Azevedo LMS, Andrade TS, Lins de Barros H (2012) Magnetic configuration model for the multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis. Eur Biophys J 41:405–413
Acosta-Avalos D, Figueiredo AC, Conceição CP, da Silva JJP, Aguiar KJMSP, Medeiros ML, Nascimento M, De Melo RD, Sousa SMM, Lins de Barros H, Alves OC, Abreu F (2019) U-turn trajectories of magnetotactic cocci allow the study of the correlation between their magnetic moment, volume and velocity. Eur Biophys J 48:513–521
Azevedo LV, Acosta-Avalos D (2015) Photokinesis is magnetic field dependent in the multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 108:579–585
Azevedo LV, Lins de Barros H, Keim CN, Acosta-Avalos D (2013) Effect of light wavelength on motility and magnetic sensibility of the magnetotactic multicellular prokaryote ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’. Antonie van Leewenhoek 104:405–412
Chen H, Zhang SD, Chen L, Cai Y, Zhang WJ, Song T, Wu LF (2018) Efficient genome editing of Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 by CRISPR-Cas9 system for analyzing magnetotactic behavior. Front Microbiol 9:1569
De Melo RD, Acosta-Avalos D (2017a) Light effects on the multicellular magnetotactic prokaryote ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’ are cancelled by radiofrequency fields: the involvements of radical pairs mechanisms. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 110:177–186
De Melo RD, Acosta-Avalos D (2017b) The swimming polarity of multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes can change during an isolation process employing magnets: evidence of a relation between swimming polarity and magnetic moment intensity. Eur Biophys J 46:533–539
De Melo RD, Leão P, Abreu F, Acosta-Avalos D (2020) The swimming orientation of multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes and uncultured magnetotactic cocci in magnetic fields similar to the geomagnetic field reveals differences in magnetotaxis between them. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 113:197–209
Esquivel DMS, Lins de Barros HGP (1986) Motion of magnetotactic microorganisms. J Exp Biol 121:153–163
Kalmijn AJ (1981) Biophysics of geomagnetic field detection. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics MAG-17 1113–1124
Keim CN, Martins JL, Lins de Barros H, Lins U, Farina M (2006) Structure, behavior, ecology and diversity of multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes. In: Schuler D (ed) Magnetoreception and Magnetosomes in bacteria. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 103–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/7171_040
Keim CN, De Melo RD, Almeida FP, Lins de Barros HGP, Farina M, Acosta-Avalos D (2018) Effect of applied magnetic fields on motility and magnetotaxis in the uncultured magnetotactic multicellular prokaryote ‘Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis’. Environ Microbiol Rep 10(4):465–474
Lins U, Freitas F, Keim CN, Lins de Barros H, Esquivel DMS, Farina M (2003) Simple homemade apparatus for harvesting uncultured magnetotactic microorganisms. Braz J Microbiol 34:111–116
Perantoni M, Esquivel DMS, Wajnberg E, Acosta-Avalos D, Cernicchiaro G, Lins de Barros H (2009) Magnetic properties of the microorganism Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis. Naturwissenschaften 96:685–690
Pichel MP, Hageman TAG, Khalil ISM, Manz A, Abelmann L (2018) Magnetic response of Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense observed insede a microfluidic channel. J Magn Magn Mater 460:340–353
Rosenblatt C, Torres de Araujo F, Frankel RB (1982) Birefringence determination of magnetic moments of magnetotactic bacteria. Biophys J 40:83–85
Wang Y, Casaburi G, Lin W, Li Y, Wang F, Pan Y (2019) Genomic evidence of the illumination response mechanism and evolutionary history of magnetotactic bacteria within the Rhodospirillaceae family. BMC Genomics 20:407
Zhu XJ, Ge X, Li N, Wu LF, Luo CX, Ouyang Q, Tu Y, Chen G (2014) Angle sensing in magnetotaxis of Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1. Integr Biol 6:706–713
Acknowledgements
D. Acosta-Avalos would like to thank Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro—FAPERJ—for financial support. Beatriz Silva Lima would like to thank Brazilian agency CNPq for a PIBIC Grant.
Funding
Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro—FAPERJ.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
MS and DA-A planned the experiments, MS performed the experiments during the night and obtained data from the videos, BSL performed the experiment during the day and obtained data from the videos, MS and DA-A analyzed the data, and DA-A wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sales, M.V.G., Lima, B.S. & Acosta-Avalos, D. U-turn time and velocity dependence on the wavelength of light: multicellular magnetotactic prokaryotes of different sizes behave differently. Eur Biophys J 49, 633–642 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-020-01472-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-020-01472-7