Magnetosomes Are Cell Membrane Invaginations Organized by the Actin-Like Protein MamK

By A. Komeili, Zhuo-Yue Li, D. Newman, G. Jensen. Science, 2006

626 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Magnetosomes are membranous bacterial organelles sharing many features of eukaryotic organelles. Using electron cryotomography, we found that magnetosomes are invaginations of the cell membrane flanked by a network of cytoskeletal filaments. The filaments appeared to be composed of MamK, a homolog of the bacterial actin-like protein MreB, which formed filaments in vivo. In a mamK deletion strain, the magnetosome-associated cytoskeleton was absent and individual magnetosomes were no longer organized into chains. Thus, it seems that prokaryotes can use cytoskeletal filaments to position organelles within the cell.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Molecular Biology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/813a81c6eeec0314d5a4a7d80f42518ba9ad1ee6

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Citations in the corpus

Experimental Observation of Magnetosome Chain Collapse in Magnetotactic Bacteria: Sedimentological, paleomagnetic, and evolutionary implications (2006, methodology): “Since the central portion of the magnetosome chain is not adjacent to the cell membrane, it must have some other means of support, and a significant fraction of the magnetosomes in these magnetococci cannot be attached to the periplasmic membrane as they apparently are in AMB-1 [28].”
Magnetite as a prokaryotic biomarker: A review (2010, methodology): “The development and construction of the magnetosome chain in some magnetotactic bacteria has been shown clearly to be under genetic control and relies on the MamK and MamJ proteins [Komeili et al., 2006; Scheffel et al., 2006].”
Varieties of Living Things: Life at the Intersection of Lineage and Metabolism (2009, background): “(7) There are increasing reports of a variety of compartments in prokaryote cells and the rising use of ‘organelle’ to describe these structures (e.g., Niftrik et al. 2004; Seufferheld et al. 2003; Kerfeld et al. 2005; Komeili et al. 2006).”
Biomineralization, crystallography and magnetic properties of bullet-shaped magnetite magnetosomes in giant rod magnetotactic bacteria (2010, background): “Recently, magnetosomes have attractedmuch attention because (1) they serve as an ideal system to understand the biomineralization process and the magnetite-based magnetoreception (Frankel and Bazylinski, 2006; Komeili et al., 2006; Pan et al., 2004; Pradel et al., 2006; Scheffel et al., 2006); (2) f”
Modes of Biomineralization of Magnetite by Microbes (2007, background): “Regardless of whether these structures are truly vesicles or not, the magnetosome membrane in Magnetospirillum magneticum strain AMB-1 clearly results from an invagination of the cell membrane and it appears to be preformed prior to the mineralization of magnetite (Komeili et al. 2004, 2006).”