Geochemical signatures of magnetite are conserved in diverse populations of environmental magnetotactic bacteria.

Magnetite from environmental magnetotactic bacteria in Lake Pavin, France preserves the most distinctive trace element and Fe isotope traits—Mo, Se, Sn enrichment and light Fe isotopes—seen in lab strains.

• Why it matters: Reliable, lasting mineralogical proxies are needed to identify ancient magnetotactic bacteria in rocks, but prior proxy patterns from single lab strains were not known to hold in environmental, mixed populations.
• What they did: The study measured trace element and Fe isotope compositions of magnetite extracted from environmental MTB collected from the water column of Lake Pavin, France, and compared them to magnetite from laboratory-cultivated MTB.
• The result: The distinctive geochemical traits are conserved in environmental populations, enabling biological signatures that can be searched in ancient rocks alongside magnetic and mineralogical tracers to support MTB presence and help reconstruct emergence and evolution.

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