Reports

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

Arash Komeili,^1* Zhuo Li,^2* Dianne K. Newman,^1,3 Grant J. Jensen²

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.

¹ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
² Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
³ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

Present address: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Mail Code 3102, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: komeili{at}nature.berkeley.edu

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C. Lang and D. Schuler (2008)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 74, 4944-4953
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Lipid Localization in Bacterial Cells through Curvature-Mediated Microphase Separation.

R. Mukhopadhyay, K. C. Huang, and N. S. Wingreen (2008)
Biophys. J. 95, 1034-1049
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E. C. Hett and E. J. Rubin (2008)
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 72, 126-156
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Environmental parameters affect the physical properties of fast-growing magnetosomes.

D. Faivre, N. Menguy, M. Posfai, and D. Schuler (2008)
American Mineralogist 93, 463-469
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The Major Magnetosome Proteins MamGFDC Are Not Essential for Magnetite Biomineralization in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense but Regulate the Size of Magnetosome Crystals.

A. Scheffel, A. Gardes, K. Grunberg, G. Wanner, and D. Schuler (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 377-386
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Polymerization of the Actin-Like Protein MamK, Which Is Associated with Magnetosomes.

A. Taoka, R. Asada, L.-F. Wu, and Y. Fukumori (2007)
J. Bacteriol. 189, 8737-8740
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Cell cycle regulation in Caulobacter: location, location, location.

E. D. Goley, A. A. Iniesta, and L. Shapiro (2007)
J. Cell Sci. 120, 3501-3507
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The Acidic Repetitive Domain of the Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MamJ Protein Displays Hypervariability but Is Not Required for Magnetosome Chain Assembly.

A. Scheffel and D. Schuler (2007)
J. Bacteriol. 189, 6437-6446
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K. Erglis, Q. Wen, V. Ose, A. Zeltins, A. Sharipo, P. A. Janmey, and A. Cebers (2007)
Biophys. J. 93, 1402-1412
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Comparative Genome Analysis of Four Magnetotactic Bacteria Reveals a Complex Set of Group-Specific Genes Implicated in Magnetosome Biomineralization and Function.

M. Richter, M. Kube, D. A. Bazylinski, T. Lombardot, F. O. Glockner, R. Reinhardt, and D. Schuler (2007)
J. Bacteriol. 189, 4899-4910
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Treadmilling of a prokaryotic tubulin-like protein, TubZ, required for plasmid stability in Bacillus thuringiensis.

R. A. Larsen, C. Cusumano, A. Fujioka, G. Lim-Fong, P. Patterson, and J. Pogliano (2007)
Genes & Dev. 21, 1340-1352
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RNaseE and the other constituents of the RNA degradosome are components of the bacterial cytoskeleton.

A. Taghbalout and L. Rothfield (2007)
PNAS 104, 1667-1672
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Magnetic Optimization in a Multicellular Magnetotactic Organism.

M. Winklhofer, L. G. Abracado, A. F. Davila, C. N. Keim, and H. G. P. Lins de Barros (2007)
Biophys. J. 92, 661-670
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Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate) Granules at the Early Stages of Formation Are Localized Close to the Cytoplasmic Membrane in Caryophanon latum.

D. Jendrossek, O. Selchow, and M. Hoppert (2007)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 73, 586-593
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The Bacterial Actin-Like Cytoskeleton.

R. Carballido-Lopez (2006)
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 70, 888-909
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Biogenesis of actin-like bacterial cytoskeletal filaments destined for positioning prokaryotic magnetic organelles.

N. Pradel, C.-L. Santini, A. Bernadac, Y. Fukumori, and L.-F. Wu (2006)
PNAS 103, 17485-17489
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Magnetic properties, microstructure, composition, and morphology of greigite nanocrystals in magnetotactic bacteria from electron holography and tomography.

T. Kasama, M. Posfai, R. K.K. Chong, A. P. Finlayson, P. R. Buseck, R. B. Frankel, and R. E. Dunin-Borkowski (2006)
American Mineralogist 91, 1216-1229
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Sulfides in Biosystems.

M. Posfai and R. E. Dunin-Borkowski (2006)
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 61, 679-714
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