A novel rapid and continuous procedure for large-scale purification of magnetosomes from Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense

A new rapid and continuous procedure was developed for purifying magnetosomes from Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1 cells on a large scale. The procedure included these steps: disruption of cells with a high-pressure homogeniser, isolation of magnetosomes with a continuous magnetism isolation system accompanied by low-power ultrasonication and urea treatment, removal of adsorbed and surface proteins with proteinase K, removal of nucleic acids with electro-elution, and replacement of the PBS buffer with distilled water by a magnetically stirred system. The purified magnetosomes were stored at −20 °C after lyophilized and treated with γ-rays. The time required for purification was reduced from 20–30 to 2–5 days. Evaluation of the purity of the resulting magnetosomes was carried out with SDS-PAGE, PCR, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The overall data suggest that the method presented here is a simple, rapid, continuous, and highly efficient procedure for large-scale purification of magnetosomes.