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. 1987 Jul;53(7):1626–1631. doi: 10.1128/aem.53.7.1626-1631.1987

Widespread occurrence of bacterial thiol methyltransferases and the biogenic emission of methylated sulfur gases.

A Drotar 1, G A Burton Jr 1, J E Tavernier 1, R Fall 1
PMCID: PMC203921  PMID: 3662509

Abstract

A majority of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from soil, water, sediment, vegetation, and marine algae cultures methylated sulfide, producing methanethiol. This was demonstrated with intact cells by measuring the emission of methanethiol with a sulfur-selective chemiluminescence detector, and in cell extracts by detection of sulfide-dependent thiol methyltransferase activity. Extracts of two Pseudomonas isolates were fractionated by gel-filtration and ion-exchange chromatography, and with sulfide as the substrate a single peak of thiol methyltransferase activity was seen in each case. Extracts of several bacterial strains also contained thiol methyltransferase activity with organic thiols as substrates. Thus, S-adenosylmethionine-dependent thiol methyltransferase activities are widespread in bacteria and may contribute to biogenic emissions of methylated sulfur gases and to the production of methyl thioethers.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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