Predicted AS3MT Proteins Methylate Arsenic and Support Two Major Phylogenetic AS3MT Groups.

ABSTRACT: Inorganic arsenic is one of the most toxic and carcinogenic substances in the environment, but many organisms, including humans, methylate inorganic arsenic to mono-, di-, and trimethylated arsenic metabolites, which the organism can excrete. In humans and other eukaryotic organisms, the arsenite methyltransferase (AS3MT) protein methylates arsenite. AS3MT sequences from eukaryotic organisms group phylogenetically with predicted eubacterial AS3MT sequences, which has led to the suggestion that AS3MT was acquired from eubacteria by multiple events of horizontal gene transfer. In this study, we evaluated whether 55 (out of which 47 were predicted based on protein sequence similarity) sequences encoding putative AS3MT orthologues in 47 species from different kingdoms can indeed methylate arse

SUBMITTER: Torbol Pedersen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7759005 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature