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Concept
Magnetotactic bacteria
Summary
Magnetotactic bacteria (or MTB) are a polyphyletic group of bacteria that orient themselves along the magnetic field lines of Earth's magnetic field. Discovered in 1963 by Salvatore Bellini and rediscovered in 1975 by Richard Blakemore, this alignment is believed to aid these organisms in reaching regions of optimal oxygen concentration. To perform this task, these bacteria have organelles called magnetosomes that contain magnetic crystals. The biological phenomenon of microorganisms tending to move in response to the environment's magnetic characteristics is known as magnetotaxis. However, this term is misleading in that every other application of the term taxis involves a stimulus-response mechanism. In contrast to the magnetoreception of animals, the bacteria contain fixed magnets that force the bacteria into alignment—even dead cells are dragged into alignment, just like a compass needle.
The first description of magnetotactic bacteria was in 1963 by Salvatore Bellini of the University of Pavia. While observing bog sediments under his microscope, Bellini noticed a group of bacteria that evidently oriented themselves in a unique direction. He realized these microorganisms moved according to the direction of the North Pole, and hence called them "magnetosensitive bacteria". The publications were academic (peer-reviewed by the Istituto di Microbiologias editorial committee under responsibility of the Institute's Director Prof. L. Bianchi, as usual in European universities at the time) and communicated in Italian with English, French and German short summaries in the official journal of a well-known institution, yet unexplainedly seem to have attracted little attention until they were brought to the attention of Richard Frankel in 2007. Frankel translated them into English and the translations were published in the Chinese Journal of Oceanography and Limnology.
Official source
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