Sandbox Reserved 497: Difference between revisions

DMSP and its degradation products, particularly dimethyl sulfide (DMS), play a key role in the sulfur cycle. Therefore a complete understanding of both the cleavage and demethylation pathways as well as the enzymes involved could have significant environmental implications. In particular, it currently appears that certain types of organisms such as ''Pelagabacter ubique,'' the microbe that DmdA was originally isolated from, utilize the demethylation pathway over the cleavage pathway because it provides an additional carbon energy source. The ability to not only identify the organisms that degrade DMSP, but also the conditions under which each pathway is more favorable, could have significant biogeochemical and bioremediation applications. However, there is a significant amount of research that must be conducted before those options can be considered. Currently experiments are being conducted in order identify and characterize DMSP-degrading organisms. For example, oceanic metagenomic data has been collected and analyzed in order to determine what marine microorganisms contain the gene to produce DmdA <ref>Howard, E.C., Sun, S., Biers, E.J., and Moran, M.A. (2008). Abundant and diverse bacteria involved in DMSP degradation in marine surface waters. Environ Microbiol. 10(9);2397-2410.</ref>. Similarly, experiments are also being conducted in order to identify the role of DmdA in certain environmental conditions, such as an induced phytoplankton bloom <ref>Howard, E.C., Sun, S., Reisch, C.R., del Valle, D.A>, Burgmann, H., Kiene, R.P., and Moran, M.A. (2011). Changes in dimethylsuloniopropionate demethylase gene assemblages in response to an induced phytoplankton bloom. Appl Environ Microbiol. 77(2):524-531.</ref>.