Diverse Methylmercury (MeHg) Producers and Degraders Inhabit Acid Mine Drainage Sediments, but Few Taxa Correlate with MeHg Accumulation.

ABSTRACT: Methylmercury (MeHg) is a notorious neurotoxin, and its production and degradation in the environment are mainly driven by microorganisms. A variety of microbial MeHg producers carrying the gene pair hgcAB and degraders carrying the merB gene have been separately reported in recent studies. However, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the simultaneous investigation of the diversities of microbial MeHg producers and degraders in a given habitat, and no studies have been performed to explore to what extent these two contrasting microbial groups correlate with MeHg accumulation in the habitat of interest. Here, we collected 86 acid mine drainage (AMD) sediments from an area spanning approximately 500,000 km² in southern China and profiled the sediment-borne

SUBMITTER: Zheng J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9948709 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature