Magnetic bacteria on a diamond plate

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 496; no. 7446; pp. 442 - 443
• Main Authors: Pósfai, Mihály, Dunin-Borkowski, Rafal E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 25.04.2013; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/326; 631/57; 639/766/25; Bacteria; Cell division; Holography; Humanities and Social Sciences; Imaging systems; Magnetic fields; Magnetism; Methods; Microorganisms; multidisciplinary; Nanocrystals; Nanoparticles; news-and-views; Nitrogen; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/496442a

A new approach has been used to image magnetic fields in living cells of magnetotactic bacteria. The technique could be applied to study the dynamics of magnetism in other biological systems. See Letter p.486 Bio-magnetic structure visualized in living cells In recent years, the nitrogen–vacancy (NV) colour centres found in diamond have been shown to be excellent high-precision probes of magnetic structures down to single spins. They also offer the unique capability of high-resolution magnetic imaging at ambient conditions, so could potentially be used to study the magnetic properties of living biological specimens. Ronald Walsworth and colleagues now use a diamond chip with NV centres to obtain images of living magnetotactic bacteria under ambient laboratory conditions with sub-cellular (400 nm) spatial resolution. They reconstruct the magnetic field created by chains of magnetic nanoparticles (magnetosomes) produced in the bacteria. The work presents a new capability for bioimaging of magnetic structures, and could be used to look at magnetic nanoparticle formation in organisms in which it has been proposed as a mechanism for magnetic navigation.