Summary
A helically shaped magnetic bacterium was isolated from freshwater sediment and a pure culture was obtained. The growth medium contained succinate, nitrate and ferric malate as the carbon, nitrogen and iron sources, respectively. The magnetic bacterium, designated AMB-1, was able to grow in free gaseous exchange with an air atmosphere. When cells were grown aerobically on agar, oxidase activity was present, and white non-magnetic colonies, which did not show catalase activity, were formed. The stationary phase of growth was reached 4–5 days later at a cell concentration of 1.4×109 cells/ml in liquid culture when an initial cell concentration of 105 cells/ml was employed. After ultrasonic disruption of harvested cells, 2.6 mg bacterial magnetite was obtained from a 11 culture.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balkwill DL, Maratea D, Blakemore RP (1980) Ultrastructure of a magnetotactic spirillum. J Bacteriol 141:1399–1408
Bazylinski DA, Blakemore RP (1983) Denitrification and assimilatory nitrate reduction Aquaspirillum magnetotacticum. Appl Environ Microbiol 46:1118–1124
Bazylinski DA, Frankel RB, Jannasch HW (1989) Anaerobic magnetite production by marine, magnetotactic bacterium. Nature 334:518–519
Blakemore RP, Maratea D, Wolfe S (1979) Isolation and pure culture of a freshwater magnetic spirillum in chemically defined medium. J Bacteriol 140:720–729
Blakemore RP, Short KA, Bazylinski DA, Rosenblatt C, Frankel RB (1985) Microaerobic conditions are required for magnetite formation within Aquaspirillum magnetotacticum. Geomicrobiol J 4:53–71
Farina F, Esquivel DMS, Lins de Barros HGP (1990) Magnetic iron-sulphur crystals from a magnetotactic microorganism. Nature 343:256–258
Fassbinder JWE, Stanjek H, Vali H (1990) Occurrence of magnetic bacteria in soil. Nature 343:161–163
Funaki M, Sakai H, Matsunaga T (1989) Identification of the magnetic poles on strong magnetic grains from meteorites using magnetotactic bacteria. J Geomag Geoelectr 41:77–87
Mann S, Sparks NHC, Frankel RB, Bazylinski DA, Jannasch HW (1990) Biomineralization of ferrimagnetic greigite (Fe3S4) and iron pyrite (FeS2) in a magnetotactic bacterium. Nature 343:258–261
Matsunaga T, Kamiya S (1987) Use of magnetic particles isolated from magnetotactic bacteria for enzyme immobilization. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 26:328–332
Matsunaga T, Hashimoto K, Nakamura N, Nakamura K, Hashimoto S (1989) Phagocytosis of bacterial magnetite by leucocytes. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 31:401–405
Towe K, Moench TT (1981) Electron-optical characterization of bacterial magnetite. Earth Sci Lett 52:213–220
Wolin EA, Wolin MJ, Wolfe RS (1963) Formation of methane by bacterial extracts. J Biol Chem 238:2882–2886
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Offprint requests to: T. Matsunaga
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matsunaga, T., Sakaguchi, T. & Tadakoro, F. Magnetite formation by a magnetic bacterium capable of growing aerobically. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 35, 651–655 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00169632
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00169632