Articles | Volume 22, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1543-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1543-2025
Research article
 | 
24 Mar 2025
Research article |  | 24 Mar 2025

Dissolved organic matter fosters core mercury-methylating microbiomes for methylmercury production in paddy soils

Qiang Pu, Bo Meng, Jen-How Huang, Kun Zhang, Jiang Liu, Yurong Liu, Mahmoud A. Abdelhafiz, and Xinbin Feng

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Cited articles

Abdelhafiz, M. A., Liu, J., Jiang, T., Pu, Q., Aslam, M. W., Zhang, K., Meng, B., and Feng, X.: DOM influences Hg methylation in paddy soils across a Hg contamination gradient, Environ. Pollut., 322, 121237, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121237, 2023. 
Archer, E.: rfPermute: estimate permutation p-values for random forest importance metrics, CRAN, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rfPermute (last access: 5 June 2024), 2018. 
Banerjee, S. K., Schlaeppi, K., and van der Heijden, M. G. A.: Keystone taxa as drivers of microbiome structure and functioning, Nat. Rev. Microbiol., 16, 567–576, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-018-0024-1, 2018. 
Barkay, T. and Gu, B.: Demethylation-The Other Side of the Mercury Methylation Coin: A Critical Review, ACS Environ. Au., 2, 77–97, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenvironau.1c00022, 2022. 
Bastian, M., Heymann, S., and Jacomy, M.: Gephi: An Open Source Software for Exploring and Manipulating Networks, In Proceedings of the Third International ICWSM conference (San Jose, California, USA, May 17–20, 2009), 361–362, AAAI Press, Article ID 154, ISBN 978-1-57735-431-3, https://doi.org/10.3610/icwsm.v3i1.13984, 2009. 
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Short summary
This study examines the effect of dissolved organic matter (DOM) on microbial mercury (Hg) methylation in paddy soils. It uncovers that DOM regulates Hg methylation mainly through altering core Hg-methylating microbiome composition and boosting the growth of core Hg-methylating microorganisms. The study highlights that in the regulation of methylmercury formation in paddy soils, more attention should be paid to changes in DOM concentration and composition.
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