Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms
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 merc...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7438021 2023-05-15T17:58:04+02:00 Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms McDaniel, Elizabeth A. Peterson, Benjamin D. Stevens, Sarah L. R. Tran, Patricia Q. Anantharaman, Karthik McMahon, Katherine D. 2020-08-18 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438021/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32817383 https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00299-20 en eng American Society for Microbiology http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438021/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32817383 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00299-20 Copyright © 2020 McDaniel et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY mSystems Research Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00299-20 2020-08-30T00:38:16Z 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 methylators are much more phylogenetically diverse than previously known and that hgcAB distribution among genomes is most likely due to several independent horizontal gene transfer events. The microorganisms we identified possess diverse metabolic capabilities spanning carbon fixation, sulfate reduction, nitrogen fixation, and metal resistance pathways. We identified 111 putative mercury methylators in a set of previously published permafrost metatranscriptomes and demonstrated that different methylating taxa may contribute to hgcA expression at different depths. Overall, we provide a framework for illuminating the microbial basis of mercury methylation using genome-resolved metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to identify putative methylators based upon hgcAB presence and describe their putative functions in the environment. IMPORTANCE Accurately assessing the production of bioaccumulative neurotoxic methylmercury by characterizing the phylogenetic diversity, metabolic functions, and activity of methylators in the environment is crucial for understanding constraints on the mercury cycle. Much of our understanding of methylmercury production is based on cultured anaerobic microorganisms within the Deltaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, and ... Text permafrost PubMed Central (PMC) mSystems 5 4 |
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Research Article McDaniel, Elizabeth A. Peterson, Benjamin D. Stevens, Sarah L. R. Tran, Patricia Q. Anantharaman, Karthik McMahon, Katherine D. Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms |
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Research Article |
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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 methylators are much more phylogenetically diverse than previously known and that hgcAB distribution among genomes is most likely due to several independent horizontal gene transfer events. The microorganisms we identified possess diverse metabolic capabilities spanning carbon fixation, sulfate reduction, nitrogen fixation, and metal resistance pathways. We identified 111 putative mercury methylators in a set of previously published permafrost metatranscriptomes and demonstrated that different methylating taxa may contribute to hgcA expression at different depths. Overall, we provide a framework for illuminating the microbial basis of mercury methylation using genome-resolved metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to identify putative methylators based upon hgcAB presence and describe their putative functions in the environment. IMPORTANCE Accurately assessing the production of bioaccumulative neurotoxic methylmercury by characterizing the phylogenetic diversity, metabolic functions, and activity of methylators in the environment is crucial for understanding constraints on the mercury cycle. Much of our understanding of methylmercury production is based on cultured anaerobic microorganisms within the Deltaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, and ... |
format |
Text |
author |
McDaniel, Elizabeth A. Peterson, Benjamin D. Stevens, Sarah L. R. Tran, Patricia Q. Anantharaman, Karthik McMahon, Katherine D. |
author_facet |
McDaniel, Elizabeth A. Peterson, Benjamin D. Stevens, Sarah L. R. Tran, Patricia Q. Anantharaman, Karthik McMahon, Katherine D. |
author_sort |
McDaniel, Elizabeth A. |
title |
Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms |
title_short |
Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms |
title_full |
Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms |
title_fullStr |
Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms |
title_full_unstemmed |
Expanded Phylogenetic Diversity and Metabolic Flexibility of Mercury-Methylating Microorganisms |
title_sort |
expanded phylogenetic diversity and metabolic flexibility of mercury-methylating microorganisms |
publisher |
American Society for Microbiology |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438021/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32817383 https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00299-20 |
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438021/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32817383 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00299-20 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2020 McDaniel et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
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CC-BY |
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https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00299-20 |
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