Arsenic detoxification and evolution of trimethylarsine gas by a microbial arsenite S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase.

Jie Qin, Barry P Rosen, Yang Zhang, Gejiao Wang, Sylvia Franke, Christopher Rensing

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2006 Feb 14

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In this article, a mechanism of arsenite [As(III)]resistance through methylation and subsequent volatization is described. Heterologous expression of arsM from Rhodopseudomonas palustris was shown to confer As(III) resistance to an arsenic-sensitive strain of Escherichia coli. ArsM catalyzes the formation of a number of methylated intermediates from As(III), with trimethylarsine as the end product. The net result is loss of arsenic, from both the medium and the cells. Because ArsM homologues are widespread in nature, this microbial-mediated transformation is proposed to have an important impact on the global arsenic cycle.

Citation

Jie Qin, Barry P Rosen, Yang Zhang, Gejiao Wang, Sylvia Franke, Christopher Rensing. Arsenic detoxification and evolution of trimethylarsine gas by a microbial arsenite S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2006 Feb 14;103(7):2075-80