Mercury methylation rates of biofilm and plankton microorganisms from a hydroelectric reservoir in French Guiana

Recent advances in the study of mercury methylation in aquatic systems

“…Although there have been several recent studies that focused on contaminated sites (Duran et al 2008;Gray and Hines 2009;Huguet et al 2010;Avramescu et al 2011;Hines et al 2012;Marvin-DiPasquale et al 2014;Windham-Myers et al 2014a, 2014b, 2014cEckley et al 2015;Figueiredo et al 2016;Liu et al 2016), these are beyond the scope of this paper; this review focuses exclusively on non-polluted aquatic systems. Recent reviews regarding both Hg methylation and demethylation focused on assessing the bioavailability of particular Hg species and the use of stable isotope techniques in methylation studies (Li and Cai 2013), the molecular mechanisms of mercury uptake and methylation (Hsu-Kim et al 2013b), and Hg cycling in Arctic (Douglas et al 2012;Braune et al 2015) and coastal marine and estuarine (Merritt and Amirbahman 2009) systems.…”

Mercury methylation and demethylation by periphyton biofilms and their host in a fluvial wetland of the St. Lawrence River (QC, Canada)

“…However, there are other methylation sites and other methylators in the aquatic environment, as has been clearly shown by the widespread distribution of the newly discovered Hg methylation gene complex, HgcA (Gilmour et al, 2013;Parks et al, 2013). In particular, some studies have demonstrated the ability of periphyton to methylate Hg (Mauro et al, 2002;Achá et al, 2005;Desrosiers et al, 2006a;Huguet et al, 2010;Hamelin et al, 2011), and, in some instances, at higher rates than sediment (Cleckner et al, 1999;Guimarães et al, 2000).…”

Mercury distribution, methylation and volatilization in microcosms with and without the sea anemone Bunodosoma caissarum

“…However, it appears that these bacteria play a less important role in the marine water column, where methylation seems to be most closely linked to organic carbon decomposition that occurs throughout the upper ocean waters. Hg methylation does not occur only in oxygen deficient environments, such as in marine sediments (Duran et al, 2008;Hollweg et al, 2009) or in estuarine biofilm communities (Huguet et al, 2010). There is evidence that Hg methylation occurs in oxic seawater where bacteria decompose (remineralization) the sinking flux of particulate organic matter in the water column (Conaway et al, 2009;Cossa et al, 2009Cossa et al, , 2011Hammerschmidt and Bowman, 2012;Lehnherr et al, 2011;Monperrus et al, 2007;Sunderland et al, 2009).…”