Fig. 3.

Tellurium accumulation is mediated via the sulfate assimilation pathway. (A) Significant deviations in tellurium accumulation (colony color) of homozygote diploid gene knockout mutants in the sulfur assimilation superpathway after 1, 2, 3, and 6 days of exposure to 0.1 or 0.4 mM K₂TeO₃. THF = tetrahydrofolate. The phenotype caused by mup1Δ was only observed in the met17Δ mutant background. (B) Time-resolved microscopy of tellurium accumulation in WT and met1Δ and met10Δ mutant cells exposed to 0.5 mM Te(IV) stress. Representative cells are displayed. (C) Growth of S. cerevisiae (S288c) and S. pombe (972h−) cells after 2 to 14 days of growth in the presence or absence of 0.5 mM K₂TeO₃ and in the presence or absence of 5 mM GSH. Observe that the medium in the presence of both K₂TeO₃ and GSH immediately turns black because of extracellular conversion of Te(IV) to Te(0).