Bacteria from Bad Water Might Do Good!

Badwater Basin and Death Valley might sound rather ominous. But scientists have stumbled upon a type of bacteria in the basin that could lead to novel biotech and nanotech uses.

The basin is situated in the Death Valley Park, California and consists of a smallspring-fed pool of "bad water;" the accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name.

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But sluicing through the basin, scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) have stumbled upon a new type of magnetic bacteria.

Magnetotactic bacteria are simple, single-celled organisms that are found in almost all bodies of water.

As their name suggests, they orient and navigate along magnetic fields like miniature swimming compass needles.

This is due to the nano-sized crystals of the minerals magnetite or greigite they produce.

The presence of these magnetic crystals makes the bacteria and their internal crystals–called magnetosomes–useful in drug delivery and medical imaging.

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While it is quite well known that the smallest organisms to use a biological compass are magnetotactic bacteria, it is unclear as to exactly how these bacteria create their cellular magnets.

The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy and the French Foundation for Medical Research.

“The finding is significant in showing that this bacterium has specific genes to synthesize magnetite and greigite, and that the proportion of these magnetosomes varies with the chemistry of the environment,” said Enriqueta Barrera, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences.

While many magnetite-producing bacteria can be grown and easily studied, Bazylinski and his team were the first to cultivate a greigite-producing species. Greigite is an iron sulfide mineral, the equivalent of the iron oxide magnetite.

“Because greigite-producing bacteria have never been isolated, the crystals haven’t been tested for the types of biomedical and other applications that currently use magnetite,” said Bazylinski.

“Greigite is an iron sulfide that may be superior to magnetite in some applications due to its slightly different physical and magnetic properties. Now we have the opportunity to find out.”

According to Bazylinski, the greigite-producing bacteria represent a new, previously unrecognized group of sulfate-reducing bacteria that “breathe” the compound sulfate rather than oxygen as most living organisms do.

Researchers found the greigite-producing bacterium, called BW-1, in water samples collected more than 280 feet below sea level in Badwater Basin. They later isolated and grew it leading to the discovery that BW-1 produces both greigite and magnetite.

A detailed look at its DNA revealed that BW-1 has two sets of magnetosome genes, unlike other such bacteria, which produce only one mineral and have only one set of magnetosome genes.

This suggests that the production of magnetite and greigite in BW-1 is likely controlled by separate sets of genes. That could be important in the mass production of either mineral for specific applications.

Source-Medindia