image: A) A cell of the new magnetotactic bacterium BW-1, showing its flagellum (labeled F) which it uses to swim and their internal magnetic crystals called magnetosomes (labeled M) B) Darkfield image (crystals appear light rather than dark) of the magnetosomes inside a cell of BW-1. The pointed crystals at the arrows are the iron oxide magnetitie (Fe3O4) and the others are the iron sulfide greigite (Fe3S4). This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Dec. 23, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by C.T. Lefèvre at Institut de Biologie Environnementale et Biotechnologie in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France, and colleagues, was titled, “A Cultured Greigite-Producing Magnetotactic Bacterium in a Novel Group of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria.” view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Christopher T. Lefèvre and Dennis A. Bazylinski