Magnetosomes transformed, giving organisms and research new directions

Researchers at Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg transformed a non-magnetic bacteria line with genes for magnetosomes, organelles that sense and respond to the earth's magnetic field, according to Phys.org.

This image, taken from boundless.com, shows a magnetosome in a bacterial cell. Each of the black dots is a magnetic crystal structure. 

Crystal structures inside the magnetosomes act like a compass needle together, thereby navigating the cell along with Earth's magneticism, a process called magnetotaxis.

The paper, Biosynthesis of magnetic nanostructures in a foreign organism by transfer of bacterial magnetosome gene clusters, published by nature.com, explains that the researchers were able to transcribe the  30 gene section of the bacterial genome that encodes for the magnetosensitivity. 

The scientists would like to analyze the set of genes to come up with minimal sets of genes with normal functionality to look at the necessity and evolution of the complex magnetosome.