Magnetosomes
Mathieu Bennet, Teresa Perez-Gonzalez, Dean Wood and Damien Faivre
from: Bionanotechnology: Biological Self-assembly and its Applications (Edited by: Bernd H. A. Rehm). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2013)
Abstract
Magnetotactic bacteria are microorganisms that form chains of magnetic nanoparticles. This process represents one of the most advanced examples of biological self-assembly at the nano- and micrometre scale. In fact, the nanoparticle size and morphology, together with the arrangement are controlled at the genetic level. The resulting hierarchical structure bestowing its magnetic properties to the bacteria is of utter interest to the development of bio-inspired nanotechnological self-assemblies. In this chapter, we describe the characteristics of the bacterial magnetic assembly with reference to the latest model found in the scientific literature. The roles of the magnetic dipoles interactions and of bacterial membrane proteins to achieve a stable, optimised and effective magnetic assembly are assessed and the relevant bio-inspired self-assembly scientific works are reviewed read more ...
