ArticleThe ISME journal2018
Syntrophic pathways for microbial mercury methylation.
Article in The ISME journal, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microbially driven methane and sulfur cycling processes and coupling mechanisms in mangrove sediments.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Elevated atmospheric CONature communications · 2025Article
- Soil Geobacteraceae are the key predictors of neurotoxic methylmercury bioaccumulation in rice.Nature food · 2024Article
- Recent advance of microbial mercury methylation in the environment.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2024Review
- Phylogenetic and ecophysiological novelty of subsurface mercury methylators in mangrove sediments.The ISME journal · 2023Article
- Magnetite Alters the Metabolic Interaction between Methanogens and Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria.Environmental science & technology · 2023Article
- Expression Levels ofEnvironmental science & technology · 2022Article
- Transcriptomic evidence for versatile metabolic activities of mercury cycling microorganisms in brackish microbial mats.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2021Article
- Nutrient Inputs Stimulate Mercury Methylation by Syntrophs in a Subarctic Peatland.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Nutrient Exposure Alters Microbial Composition, Structure, and Mercury Methylating Activity in Periphyton in a Contaminated Watershed.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Mercury Methylation Genes Identified across Diverse Anaerobic Microbial Guilds in a Eutrophic Sulfate-Enriched Lake.Environmental science & technology · 2020Article
- Biotic formation of methylmercury: A bio-physico-chemical conundrum.Limnology and oceanography · 2020Review
- Deltaproteobacteria and Spirochaetes-Like Bacteria Are Abundant Putative Mercury Methylators in Oxygen-Deficient Water and Marine Particles in the Baltic Sea.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- Sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogens are involved in arsenic methylation and demethylation in paddy soils.The ISME journal · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Exposure to dietary sources of methylmercury (MeHg) is the focus of public health concerns with environmental mercury (Hg) contamination. MeHg is formed in anoxic environments by anaerobic microorganisms. This process has been studied mostly with single-species culture incubations, although the relevance of such studies to Hg(II)-methylation in situ is limited because microbial activities in the environment are critically modulated by interactions among microbial functional groups. Here we describe experiments in which Hg(II)-methylation was examined within the context of various microbial syntrophies. We show enhanced Hg(II)-methylation under conditions that established syntrophy by interspecies hydrogen and acetate transfer. Relative to activity of monocultures, interactions of Hg(II) methylating sulfate-reducing bacteria with a methanogen stimulated potential Hg(II)-methylation rates 2-fold to 9-fold, and with Syntrophobacter sp. 1.7-fold to 1.8-fold; those of a Hg(II) methylating Syntrophobacter sp. with a methanogen increased Hg(II)-methylation 2-fold. Under sulfate-depleted conditions, higher Hg(II)-methylation rates in the syntrophic incubations corresponded to higher free energy yields (ΔG°') than in the monocultures. Based on energetic considerations, we therefore propose that syntrophic microbial interactions are likely a major source of MeHg in sulfate- and iron-limited anoxic environments while in sulfate-replete environments, MeHg formation via sulfate reduction dominates.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.