By Xeno
Magnetotactic bacteria bend their chains of magnetosomes (red) before cell division.
Bacteria that contain an internal compass face an unusual challenge when they come to divide: snapping their internal magnets in two. A report1 in the December issue of Molecular Microbiology explains how one species generates the force to separate magnetic nanoparticles and apportions them equally between daughter cells.
Richard Blakemore first described magnetotactic bacteria — which can orient themselves in line with Earth’s magnetic field — in the 1970s2. The magnets probably help oxygen-averse marine bacteria to navigate waters and sediments where the levels of chemicals such as oxygen and sulphide change quickly with depth, says Dirk Schüler, a microbiologist at the Ludwig–Maximilians... More...
