On the Origin and Evolution of Microbial Mercury Methylation

Heyu Lin; Edmund R R Moody; Tom A Williams; John W Moreau; Brian Golding

doi:10.1093/gbe/evad051

On the Origin and Evolution of Microbial Mercury Methylation

Heyu Lin
, Edmund R R Moody
, Tom A Williams
, John W Moreau
, Brian Golding (Editor)

Department of Life Sciences

University of Melbourne
University of Bristol

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Citations (SciVal)

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.

Original language	English
Journal	Genome biology and evolution
Volume	15
Issue number	4
Early online date	23 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evad051
Publication status	Published - 6 Apr 2023

Data Availability Statement

All data generated in this study including amino acid alignments and phylogenetic trees are deposited in Figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21428523.

Acknowledgements

We thank Yao-ban Chan and Qiuyi Li at The University of Melbourne for valuable discussions and advice in the early stage of this study. We also acknowledge helpful discussions with Caitlin Gionfriddo, Ben Peterson, and Eric Capo.

Funding

This publication was made possible in part through support from a Strategic Australian Postgraduate Award (PhD scholarship) to H.L. from the Environmental Microbiology Research Initiative (EMRI) at The University of Melbourne (J.W.M.) and laboratory start-up funding from the University of Glasgow to J.W.M., the Moore Foundation (https://doi.org/10.37807/GBMF9741 to T.A.W.), the Royal Society (URF\R\201024) to T.A.W., and the John Templeton Foundation (62220 to T.A.W. and E.R.R.M.). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

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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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On the Origin and Evolution of Microbial Mercury Methylation

Abstract

Data Availability Statement

Acknowledgements

Funding

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