Metal uptake and separation using magnetotactic bacteria

Author

Bahaj, A.S. ; James, P.A.B. ; Croudace, I.W.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Cryogenics, Southampton Univ., UK

Volume

30

Issue

6

fYear

1994

fDate

11/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

4707

Lastpage

4709

Abstract

Magnetotactic bacteria align themselves with the Earth´s magnetic field enabling them to navigate towards their ideal environment in sediments of ponds, streams or rivers in which they live. A magnetotactic spirillum has been used to study uptake and separation of various heavy metals from solution at low ppm levels. By applying a low, focusing magnetic field, metal loaded magnetotactic bacteria can be forced to swim in a required direction. This paper discusses the use of magnetotactic bacteria in low magnetic field “orientation separation”. This encompasses the efficiency of various sizes of orientation separators and the effect of different metals on bacterial motility

Keywords

biological effects of fields; biomagnetism; cell motility; Earth magnetic field; bacterial motility; heavy metals; low focusing magnetic field; magnetotactic bacteria; magnetotactic spirillum; metal separation; metal uptake; orientation separation; ponds; rivers; sediments; streams; Cryogenics; Crystals; Earth; Geology; Iron; Magnetic fields; Magnetic separation; Microorganisms; Particle separators; Sediments;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.334196

Filename

334196