ArticleGenome biology and evolution2023
On the Origin and Evolution of Microbial Mercury Methylation.
Article in Genome biology and evolution, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nutrient-Driven Modulation of Microbial, Plant, and Rhizosphere Processes for Heavy Metal Remediation.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Metagenomics reveals diverse community of putative mercury methylators across different biogeochemical niches in Sansha Yongle blue hole.Marine life science & technology · 2026Article
- The role of prokaryotic mercury methylators and demethylators in Canadian Arctic thermokarst lakes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Functional Genes and Transcripts Indicate the Existent and Active Microbial Mercury-Methylating Community in Mangrove Intertidal Sediments of an Urbanized Bay.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Mining-impacted rice paddies select for Archaeal methylators and reveal a putative (Archaeal) regulator of mercury methylation.ISME communications · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of microbial mercury methylation has long been a mystery. Here, we employed genome-resolved phylogenetic analyses to decipher the evolution of the mercury-methylating gene, hgcAB, constrain the ancestral origin of the hgc operon, and explain the distribution of hgc in Bacteria and Archaea. We infer the extent to which vertical inheritance and horizontal gene transfer have influenced the evolution of mercury methylators and hypothesize that evolution of this trait bestowed the ability to produce an antimicrobial compound (MeHg+) on a potentially resource-limited early Earth. We speculate that, in response, the evolution of MeHg+-detoxifying alkylmercury lyase (encoded by merB) reduced a selective advantage for mercury methylators and resulted in widespread loss of hgc in Bacteria and Archaea.
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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.