The abundant marine bacterium Pelagibacter simultaneously catabolizes dimethylsulfoniopropionate to the gases dimethyl sulfide and methanethiol

Sun, Jing, Todd, Jonathan D., Thrash, J. Cameron, Qian, Yanping, Qian, Michael C., Temperton, Ben, Guo, Jiazhen, Fowler, Emily K., Aldrich, Joshua T., Nicora, Carrie D., Lipton, Mary S., Smith, Richard D., De Leenheer, Patrick, Payne, Samuel H., Johnston, Andrew W.B., Davie-Martin, Cleo L., Halsey, Kimberly H. and Giovannoni, Stephen J. (2016) The abundant marine bacterium Pelagibacter simultaneously catabolizes dimethylsulfoniopropionate to the gases dimethyl sulfide and methanethiol. Nature Microbiology, 1.

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Abstract

Marine phytoplankton produce ~109 tons of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) per year1,2, an estimated 10% of which is catabolized by bacteria through the DMSP cleavage pathway to the climatically active gas dimethyl sulfide (DMS)3,4. SAR11 Alphaproteobacteria (order Pelagibacterales), the most abundant chemoorganotrophic bacteria in the oceans, have been shown to assimilate DMSP into biomass, thereby supplying this cell’s unusual requirement for reduced sulfur5,6. Here we report that Pelagibacter HTCC1062 produces the gas methanethiol (MeSH) and that simultaneously a second DMSP catabolic pathway, mediated by a cupin-like DMSP lyase, DddK, shunts as much as 59% of DMSP uptake to DMS production. We propose a model in which the allocation of DMSP between these pathways is kinetically controlled to release increasing amounts of DMS as the supply of DMSP exceeds cellular sulfur demands for biosynthesis.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	biogeochemistry,environmental microbiology,microbial biooceanography,microbial ecology,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_below_water
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Molecular Microbiology
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	08 Apr 2016 11:48
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 01:00
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/58172
DOI:	10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.65

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