Magnetotactic bacteria are a diverse group of microorganisms with the ability to use geomagnetic fields for direction sensing. This unique feat is accomplished with the help of magnetosomes, nanometer-sized magnetic crystals surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane and organized into chains via a dedicated cytoskeleton within the cell. Because of the special properties of these magnetic crystals,...

“Biomineralization links soft organic tissues, which are compositionally akin to the atmosphere and oceans, with the hard materials of the solid Earth. It provides organisms with skeletons and shells while they are alive, and when they die these are deposited as sediment in environments from river plains to the deep ocean floor. It is also these hard, resistant products of life which are mainly...

The ability of magnetotactic bacteria to orient and migrate along geomagnetic field lines is based on intracellular magnetic structures, the magnetosomes, which comprise nano-sized, membrane bound crystals of magnetic iron minerals. The formation of magnetosomes is achieved by a biological mechanism that controls the accumulation of iron and the biomineralization of magnetic crystals with a cha...