Cellular iron homeostasis is vital and maintained through tight regulation of iron import, efflux, storage and detoxification. The most common modes of iron storage use proteinaceous compartments, such as ferritins and related proteins. Although lipid-bounded iron compartments have also been described, the basis for their formation and function remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Environ Microbiol
November 2018
Magnetosomes are complex bacterial organelles that serve as model systems for studying bacterial cell biology, biomineralization, and global iron cycling. Magnetosome biogenesis is primarily studied in two closely related of the genus that form cubooctahedral-shaped magnetite crystals within a lipid membrane. However, chemically and structurally distinct magnetic particles have been found in physiologically and phylogenetically diverse bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUncovering the mechanisms that underlie the biogenesis and maintenance of eukaryotic organelles is a vibrant and essential area of biological research. In comparison, little attention has been paid to the process of compartmentalization in bacteria and archaea. This lack of attention is in part due to the common misconception that organelles are a unique evolutionary invention of the "complex" eukaryotic cell and are absent from the "primitive" bacterial and archaeal cells.
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