Journal
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 72, Issue 1, Pages 457-464Publisher
AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1128/AEM.72.1.457-464.2006
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Methylmercury has been thought to be produced predominantly by sulfate-reducing bacteria in anoxic sediments. Here we show that in circumneutral pH sediments (Clear Lake, CA) application of a specific inhibitor of sulfate-reducing bacteria at appropriate concentrations typically inhibited less than one-half of all anaerobic methylation of added divalent mercury. This suggests that one or more additional groups of microbes are active methylators in these sediments impacted by a nearby abandoned mercury mine. From Clear Lake sediments, we isolated the iron-reducing bacterium Geobacter sp. strain CLFeRE, which can methylate mercury at a rate comparable to Desulfobulbus propionicus strain 1pr3, a sulfate-reducing bacterium known to be an active methylator. This is the first time that an iron-reducing bacterium has been shown to methylate mercury at environmentally significant rates. We suggest that mercury methylation by iron-reducing bacteria represents a previously unidentified and potentially significant source of this environmental toxin in iron-rich freshwater sediments.
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