Extraction of Magnetosomes from Acidthiobacillus ferrooxidans

There are many similarities between Acidthiobacillus ferrooxidans (At.f) and magnetotactic bacteria on physiological properties and growing environment except their trophic types. Magnetosomes can be extracted from At.f by using an improved extracting method of magnetosomes. The membrane of At.f was crushed by ultrasonic wave and the magnetosomes in At.f which mainly contains Fe through chemical detection were attracted by using magnetite. After purified with sucrose density gradient centrifugation and washing by PBS and ethanol, 0.8mg/l magnetosomes were obtained. The magnetosomes were clearly observed under a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results indicate there are a small amount of intracellular magnetosomess which made At.f weak magnetotactic under the applied magnetic field. At.f can be isolated by using the magnetotactic property for biohydrometallurgy and the high effective At.f strain can be gained to leach mineral with different magnetisms.