Diversity of magnetotactic bacteria from a French pristine Mediterranean area.

Maxime Fuduche (1) , Anne Postec (1) , Sylvain Davidson (1) , Jean-Paul Chauvin (2) , Grégoire Galès (3) , Agnès Hirschler-Réa (1) , Bernard Ollivier (1) , Long-Fei Wu (4) , Nathalie Pradel (1)

1 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie
2 IBDM - Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille
3 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
4 LCB - Laboratoire de chimie bactérienne

Magnetotactic bacteria synthesize intracellular magnetite and/or greigite magnetosome crystals. They play a significant role in both iron and sulfur cycles in sedimentary aquatic environments. To get insight into the bio-geochemical contribution of MTB, more studies concerning their ecology and their distribution in diverse habitats are necessary. The MTB community of an oil-industry polluted area of the French Mediterranean coast has been previously investigated. Here, we investigate the MTB community from coastal sediments of a Mediterranean pristine area using optical and transmission electron microscopy and phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. A particularly high diversity of MTB was observed, with cocci phylogenetically distributed across the order Magnetococcales, including a novel cluster with sequences from the Mediterranean Sea designated as "Med group", and novel morphotypes.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère

Maxime Fuduche, Anne Postec, Sylvain Davidson, Jean-Paul Chauvin, Grégoire Galès, et al.. Diversity of magnetotactic bacteria from a French pristine Mediterranean area.. Current Microbiology, 2015, 70 (4), pp.499-505. ⟨10.1007/s00284-014-0745-y⟩. ⟨hal-01146287⟩