Genetic and biochemical investigations of the role of MamP in redox control of iron biomineralization in Magnetospirillum magneticum.

ABSTRACT: Magnetotactic bacteria have evolved complex subcellular machinery to construct linear chains of magnetite nanocrystals that allow the host cell to sense direction. Each mixed-valent iron nanoparticle is mineralized from soluble iron within a membrane-encapsulated vesicle termed the magnetosome, which serves as a specialized compartment that regulates the iron, redox, and pH environment of the growing mineral. To dissect the biological components that control this process, we have carried out a genetic and biochemical study of proteins proposed to function in iron mineralization. In this study, we show that the redox sites of c-type cytochromes of the Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 magnetosome island, MamP and MamT, are essential to their physiological function and that ablation of one o

SUBMITTER: Jones SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4386411 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature