magnetosome membrane

GO:0110146 · Membrane organelle · Membrane · Proposed

The lipid bilayer membrane surrounding a magnetosome. [GO:0110146]

Part of: magnetosome (GO:0110143)

Xrefs: uniprot.location:SL-0512 — Magnetosome membrane

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
magnetosome lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Lipid bilayer that surrounds each magnetosome mineralization vesicle and carries magnetosome-associated membrane proteins. `GO:0110146` GO:0110146 identifies the magnetosome membrane as the lipid bilayer surrounding a magnetosome. `DOI:10.1038/nrmicro.2016.99` Uebe and Schuler 2016 review the magnetosome membrane as a lipid vesicle boundary derived from the cytoplasmic membrane during magnetosome biogenesis.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:2 Bacteria — RARE: Magnetosome membranes occur in magnetotactic bacterial lineages rather than broadly across Bacteria. [DOI:10.1038/nrmicro.2016.99]
NCBITaxon:28211 Alphaproteobacteria — VARIABLE: The magnetotactic model strains used for membrane biochemistry and genetics are Alphaproteobacteria, but magnetotaxis is confined to particular lineages. [DOI:10.1038/nrmicro.2016.99]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:431944 Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1 — Alphaproteobacterial model used for biochemical and proteomic analysis of isolated magnetosome membranes. [PMID:14766587]

Functions

magnetosome biomineralization boundary — The magnetosome membrane encloses the iron-mineral biomineralization vesicle and hosts Mam/Mms proteins that support controlled magnetite crystal formation.
- DOI:10.1038/nrmicro.2016.99 Uebe and Schuler 2016 review Mam/Mms proteins at the magnetosome membrane and their roles in magnetosome biogenesis.
- PMID:14766587 Grunberg et al. 2004 biochemically and proteomically analyzed the magnetosome membrane in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense.

Mechanism graphs

Magnetosome membrane bounds the biomineralizing vesicle (FUNCTION)

The magnetosome membrane surrounds the mineralizing magnetosome vesicle and hosts Mam/Mms membrane proteins that support controlled iron biomineralization.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
magnetosome membrane	is part of	magnetosome	`GO:0110146` GO:0110146 defines the membrane by its surrounding relation to the magnetosome. `uniprot.location:SL-0512` — Magnetosome membrane UniProt SL-0512 maps the Magnetosome membrane subcellular-location entry to GO:0110146.
Mam/Mms magnetosome membrane proteins	reside in	magnetosome membrane	`PMID:14766587` Grunberg et al. 2004 performed biochemical and proteomic analysis of the magnetosome membrane in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. `DOI:10.1002/pro.2827` Barber-Zucker and Zarivach 2015 review magnetosome-associated proteins and their functions at magnetosome membranes.
magnetosome membrane	supports	magnetosome biomineralization	`DOI:10.1038/nrmicro.2016.99` Uebe and Schuler 2016 review magnetosome membrane invagination, membrane proteins, iron accumulation, and magnetite biomineralization.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve an exact source-neutral grounding for the generic lipid constituent of the magnetosome membrane. The record is exactly grounded to GO:0110146, but no magnetosome-specific lipid or lipid-bilayer CURIE was curated for the membrane constituent.

Evidence

GO:0110146 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the magnetosome membrane.
GO:0016020 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent term for membrane.
GO:0110143 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the containing magnetosome.
uniprot.location:SL-0512 — Magnetosome membrane UniProt Subcellular Location entry SL-0512 maps to GO:0110146 and lists Magnetosome membrane as the entry name.
DOI:10.1038/nrmicro.2016.99 Uebe R and Schuler D 2016, Magnetosome biogenesis in magnetotactic bacteria, Nature Reviews Microbiology.
DOI:10.1002/pro.2827 Barber-Zucker and Zarivach 2015, From invagination to navigation: the story of magnetosome-associated proteins, Protein Science.
PMID:14766587 Grunberg et al. 2004, Biochemical and proteomic analysis of the magnetosome membrane in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Curation history

2026-09-13T16:05:25Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-13T16:06:15Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added SL-0512 xref, membrane parentage, magnetosome parthood, a label-only lipid-bilayer component, bacterial/Alphaproteobacteria scope, an MSR-1 example, a biomineralization-boundary function, GO/UniProt/DOI/PMID evidence, a nonmechanistic magnetosome-membrane topology graph, and a lipid-grounding TODO.

Source: data/structures/membrane_organelle/magnetosome_membrane.yaml