Genetic and Ultrastructural Analysis Reveals the Key Players and Initial Steps of Bacterial Magnetosome Membrane Biogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Magnetosomes of magnetotactic bacteria contain well-ordered nanocrystals for magnetic navigation and have recently emerged as the most sophisticated model system to study the formation of membrane bounded organelles in prokaryotes. Magnetosome biosynthesis is thought to begin with the formation of a dedicated compartment, the magnetosome membrane (MM), in which the biosynthesis of a magnetic mineral is strictly controlled. While the biomineralization of magnetosomes and their subsequent assembly into linear chains recently have become increasingly well studied, the molecular mechanisms and early stages involved in MM formation remained poorly understood. In the Alphaproteobacterium Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense, approximately 30 genes were found to control magnetosome biosynthesis. By c

SUBMITTER: Raschdorf O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4902198 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature