Mechanism of Bacterial Biomineralization

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Microbial structure in the form of banded zebra patterns have been found as periodic Fe-Mn layers in living biomats from Satsuma-Iwo Jima, southern Kyushu, Japan. Electron microscopic observation shows that fibrous and bacillus type bacterial communities construct a zebra architecture, Fe-Mn layers through biomineralization on / in the cell. A living microbial fumarolic ferro-manganese precipitation growing in the seawater around an active volcanic island explains the mechanism of banded formation. Biological processes form the elemental zebra pattern, with periodic distribution of bacterial cells filled with Mn and Fe in each layer of the architecture. Fibrous bacteria are sometimes mineralized with goethite, ferrihydrite and buserite microcrystals, coated with granular mucoid substances. The biomineralization may then become incorporated into stratifer recent Banded Iron Formation.