Synthesis of cellular organelles containing nano-magnets stunts growth of magnetotactic bacteria.

Magnetotactic bacteria are unique prokaryotes possessing the feature of cellular organelles called magnetosomes (membrane bound 40-50 nm vesicles entrapping a magnetic nano-crystal of magnetite or greigite). The obvious energetic impact of sophisticated eukaryotic-like membrane-bound organelle assembly on a presumably simpler prokaryotic system is not addressed in literature. In this work, while presenting evidence of direct coupling of carbon source consumption to synthesis of magnetosomes, we provide the first experimentally derived estimate of energy for organelle synthesis by Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense as approximately 5 nJoules per magnetosome. Considering our estimate of approximately 0.2 microJoules per bacterial cell as the energy required for growth, we show that the energetic load of organelle synthesis results in stunting of cell growth. We also show that removal of soluble iron or sequestration by exogenous compounds in the bacterial cell cultures reverses the impact of the excess metabolic load exerted during magnetosomal synthesis. Thus, by taking advantage of the magnetotactic bacterial system we present the first experimental evidence for the presumed energy consumption during assembly of naturally occurring sub-100 nm intra-cellular organelles.