Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mao, Xuegang
• Egli, Ramon
• Liu, Xiuming
• Zhao, Lijuan
• Dahms, Hans-Uwe

Titel

Magnetotactic advantage in stable sediment by long-term observations of magnetotactic bacteria in Earth's field, zero field and alternating field

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2022-02, Vol.17 (2), p.e0263593-e0263593

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) rely on magnetotaxis to effectively reach their preferred living habitats, whereas experimental investigation of magnetotactic advantage in stable sediment is currently lacking. We studied two wild type MTB (cocci and rod-shaped M. bavaricum) in sedimentary environment under exposure to geomagnetic field in the laboratory, zero field and an alternating field whose polarity was switched every 24 hours. The mean concentration of M. bavaricum dropped by ~50% during 6 months in zero field, with no clear temporal trend suggesting an extinction. Cell numbers recovered to initial values within ~1.5 months after the Earth's field was reset. Cocci displayed a larger temporal variability with no evident population changes in zero field. The alternating field experiment produced a moderate decrease of M. bavaricum concentrations and nearby extinction of cocci, confirming the active role of magnetotaxis in sediment and might point to a different magnetotactic mechanism for M. bavaricum which possibly benefited them to survive field reversals in geological periods. Our findings provide a first quantification of magnetotaxis advantage in sedimentary environment.