Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (14) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Clemett, S. J. Articles by Romanek, C. S. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Crystal morphology of MV-1 magnetite

¹ Lockheed Martin Space Operations (NASA/Johnson Space Center Astrobilogy Institute), 2400 NASA Road 1, Mail Code C23, Houston, Texas 77058, U.S.A.
² Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, U.S.A.
³ Iowa State University, Department of Microbiology, 207 Science I, Ames, Iowa 50011, U.S.A.
⁴ California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125, U.S.A.
⁵ NASA, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77058, U.S.A.
⁶ McGill University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 3450 University Street, Montreal, PQ H3A 2A7, Canada
⁷ Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina 29802, U.S.A.

Correspondence: ^* E-mail: kthomas{at}ems.jsc.nasa.gov

Intracellular magnetite (Fe₃O₄) crystals produced by magnetotactic bacteria strain MV-1 are in the single-domain size range, and are chemically pure. We have previously suggested that they exhibit an unusual crystal habit described as truncated hexa-octahedral. Such a crystal morphology has not been demonstrated for any inorganic population of magnetite, nor would it be expected, given considerations of symmetry and free energy. By inference, this morphology is a physical signature of a biological origin. Here we report data from transmission electron microscope (TEM) tomography of such crystals isolated from magnetotactic bacteria, which confirm the unusual geometry, originally proposed from classical TEM tilt imaging.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. Faivre, N. Menguy, F. Guyot, O. Lopez, and P. Zuddas Morphology of nanomagnetite crystals: Implications for formation conditions American Mineralogist, November 1, 2005; 90(11-12): 1793 - 1800. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Arato, Z. Szanyi, C. Flies, D. Schuler, R. B. Frankel, P. R. Buseck, and M. Posfai Crystal-size and shape distributions of magnetite from uncultured magnetotactic bacteria as a potential biomarker American Mineralogist, August 1, 2005; 90(8-9): 1233 - 1240. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. C. Golden, D.C. Golden, D.W. Ming, R.V. Morris, A.J. Brearley, H.V. Lauer Jr., A.H. Treiman, M.E. Zolensky, C.S. Schwandt, G.E. Lofgren, et al. Evidence for exclusively inorganic formation of magnetite in Martian meteorite ALH84001 American Mineralogist, May 1, 2004; 89(5-6): 681 - 695. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. A. Bazylinski, D. A. Bazylinski, and R. B. Frankel Biologically Controlled Mineralization in Prokaryotes Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2003; 54(1): 217 - 247. [Full Text] [PDF]