THE genetic code for tiny biological magnets called magnetosomes has been cracked.
The granules are produced by oxygen-hating bacteria and help them navigate, using the Earth’s magnetic field, towards deep, oxygen-poor regions of the ocean.
at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan and his colleagues singled out the genes by comparing well-known magnetic bacteria to a distantly related magnetic species. By identifying genes common to all species, they pinpointed those used for making magnetosomes (Genome Research, ).
The discovery may herald the production of synthetic nanomagnets, which could lead to improvements in MRI…
