Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms.

ABSTRACT: Methylmercury is a potent bioaccumulating neurotoxin that is produced by specific microorganisms that methylate inorganic mercury. Methylmercury production in diverse anaerobic bacteria and archaea was recently linked to the hgcAB genes. However, the full phylogenetic and metabolic diversity of mercury-methylating microorganisms has not been fully unraveled due to the limited number of cultured experimentally verified methylators and the limitations of primer-based molecular methods. Here, we describe the phylogenetic diversity and metabolic flexibility of putative mercury-methylating microorganisms by hgcAB identification in publicly available isolate genomes and metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) as well as novel freshwater MAGs. We demonstrate that putative mercury methyl

SUBMITTER: McDaniel EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7438021 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature