Chemical-Shuttling Bacteria Follow Earth’s Magnetic Field
Magnetotactic bacteria shunt sulfur, nitrogen, and other important elements between oxygen-poor and oxygen-rich waters.
Earth’s magnetic field extends more than 65,000 kilometers above the surface of our planet, reaching far beyond our atmosphere and streaming out into space. Meanwhile, down on the planet’s surface, in the narrow band of conditions between aquatic oxic and anoxic zones (characterized by the abundance and absence, respectively, of molecular oxygen) in sediments or the water column, microscopic bacteria follow Earth’s magnetic signals as they shuttle chemicals across the gap.
Li et al. investigate the chemistry and cellular structure of one kind of these magnetic field–following bacteria, called Candidatus Magnetobacterium casensis (Mcas), to illuminate the role of magnetic navigation, or magnetotaxis, in aquatic chemical cycling.
The researchers found that Mcas’s internal structure is closely linked to its shuttling function. The bacteria produce iron-containing magnetite crystals that act as compasses, guiding the bacterium’s navigation. Mcas cells also form sulfur-carrying globules and storage pods of nitrate called vacuoles, often at different times....
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Unrelated from 2018:
Birds Can See Earth's Magnetic Fields, And Now We Know How That's Possible
