An S-methyltransferase that produces the climate-active gas dimethylsulfide is widespread across diverse marine bacteria

Zhang, Yunhui, Sun, Chuang, Guo, Zihua, Liu, Liyan, Zhang, Xiaotong, Sun, Kai, Zheng, Yanfen, Gates, Andrew J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4594-5038, Todd, Jonathan D. and Zhang, Xiao-Hua (2024) An S-methyltransferase that produces the climate-active gas dimethylsulfide is widespread across diverse marine bacteria. Nature Microbiology, 9. 2614–2625. ISSN 2058-5276

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Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methanethiol (MeSH) and dimethylsulfide (DMS) are abundant sulfur gases with roles in biogeochemical cycling, chemotaxis and/or climate regulation. Catabolism of the marine osmolyte dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a major source of DMS and MeSH, but both also result from S-methylation of H2S via MddA, an H2S and MeSH S-methyltransferase whose gene is abundant in soil but scarce in marine environments. Here we identify the S-adenosine methionine (SAM)-dependent MeSH and H2S S-methyltransferase ‘MddH’, which is widespread in diverse marine bacteria and some freshwater and soil bacteria. mddH is predicted in up to ~5% and ~15% of seawater and coastal sediment bacteria, respectively, which is considerably higher than mddA. Furthermore, marine mddH transcript levels are similar to those for the most abundant DMSP lyase gene dddP. This study implies that the importance of H2S and MeSH S-methylation pathways in marine environments is significantly underestimated.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92251303 and 32370118, Principal Investigator (PI): X.-H.Z.; 42376101, PI: Y. Zhang), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center (LSKJ202203206, LSKJ202203201 and 2022QNLM030004-3, PI: X.-H.Z.), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (202172002, PI: X.-H.Z.), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UK (BB/X005968, PI: J.D.T.), Natural Environmental Research Council, UK (NE/P012671, NE/S001352, NE/V000756/1, NE/X000990 and NE/X014428, PI: J.D.T.), Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2020-413, PI: J.D.T.), and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UK (BB/M00256X/1 and BB/S008942/1, PI: A.J.G.).
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_below_water
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Molecular and Structural Biochemistry
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Molecular Microbiology
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 09 Sep 2024 10:30
Last Modified: 01 Oct 2024 09:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96628
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01788-6

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