Article
Potential for mercury reduction by microbes in the high arctic.
Applied and environmental microbiology - 1 Apr 2007
Poulain Alexandre J, Ní Chadhain Sinéad M, Ariya Parisa A, Amyot Marc, Garcia Edenise, Campbell Peter G C, Zylstra Gerben J, Barkay Tamar
Abstract excerpt
The contamination of polar regions due to the global distribution of anthropogenic pollutants is of great concern because it leads to the bioaccumulation of toxic substances, methylmercury among them, in Arctic food chains. Here we present the first evidence that microbes in the high Arctic possess and express diverse merA genes, which specify the reduction of ionic mercury [Hg(II)] to the volatile elemental form...
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