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Cancelled - Discovering new mercury methylating bacteria in the world’s oceans with meta-omics and protein structure/function modelling

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Dates:6 May 2020
Times:13:00 - 14:00
What is it:Seminar
Organiser:Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Who is it for:University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students
Speaker:Dr John Moreau
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  • In category "Seminar"
  • By Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled.

Dr John Moreau, University of Glasgow, joins us for a Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences seminar. Abstract below.

Methylmercury (MeHg, CH3Hg+) bioaccumulates in marine food webs as a potent neurotoxin. Microbial methylation of inorganic mercury (Hg2+) produces most environmental MeHg. The gene pair hgcAB encodes for Hg(II) methylation, a function mainly associated with the anaerobic Deltaproteobacteria. However, recent studies support the microbial formation of methylmercury in sub-oxic seawater, as well as potentially sub-oxic microniches within sea-ice Gionfriddo et al. 2016, Jones et al. 2019, Villar et al. 2019. Here, we present results from genome-resolved metagenomic analyses of sea ice and seawater to identify putative novel Hg-methylating microorganisms. We discovered new hgcAB sequences associated with micro-aerophilic bacteria, and confirmed their functionality, in the absence of cultured isolates, using protein structure/function modelling. We recovered near-complete marine genomes phylogenetically associated with Nitrospina, Marinimicrobia, Verrucomicrobia, SAR324, and Calditrichaeota that all carried putatively functional hgc genes. The hgcA-carrying Nitrospina were found both in sea ice and seawater, while hgcA-carrying Marinimicrobia exhibited both a high degree of sequence conservation and greater abundance in seawater. Our findings expand the database of known Hg-methylating microorganisms, and help to refine questions about the origin, purpose and significance of microbial mercury methylation.

Speaker

Dr John Moreau

Organisation: University of Glasgow

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Margherita Polacci

<margherita.polacci@manchester.ac.uk>

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