title: Crystal structure of the magnetobacterial protein MtxA C-terminal domain reveals a new sequence-structure relationship.
abstract: Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are a diverse group of aquatic bacteria that have the magnetotaxis ability to align themselves along the geomagnetic field lines and to navigate to a microoxic zone at the bottom of chemically stratified natural water. This special navigation is the result of a unique linear assembly of a specialized organelle, the magnetosome, which contains a biomineralized magnetic nanocrystal enveloped by a cytoplasmic membrane. The Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MtxA protein (MGR_0208) was suggested to play a role in bacterial magnetotaxis due to its gene location in an operon together with putative signal transduction genes. Since no homology is found for MtxA, and to better understand the role and function of MtxA in MTBés magnetotaxis, we initiated structural and functional studies of MtxA via X-ray crystallography and deletion mutagenesis. Here, we present the crystal structure of the MtxA C-terminal domain and provide new insights into its sequence-structure relationship.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Geula
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Davidov
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Bayreuth Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPI) Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baumgartner
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Ronit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bitton
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPI) Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faivre
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Bayreuth Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schüler
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Raz
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zarivach
keywords: MtxA; immunoglobulin-like domain; magnetosome; magnetosome genomic island; magnetotactic bacteria; magnetotaxis; tetratricopeptide repeats