Contribución de las comunidades microbianas en los procesos de metilación y desmetilación de Mercurio: un acercamiento metagenómico a la problemática de contaminación por mercurio en Colombia.

Abstract

Mercury, especially in its most toxic form, methylmercury, is a persistent environmental pollutant that has raised global concern due to its high toxicity and ability to bioaccumulate in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Illegal mining has exacerbated this problem, being a significant source of mercury release into the environment worldwide, particularly in Colombia, where an increase in emissions of this pollutant has been observed in recent years. Microorganisms play a crucial role in the biogeochemistry of mercury, primarily through operons such as hgc and mer, which are essential in the processes of methylation and demethylation of mercury. In this study, raw metagenomic reads from 74 bioprojects in 9 locations across Colombia were processed through metagenomic analysis, resulting in 175 MAGs. Among these, 16 MAGs were identified as potential candidates for mercury biotransformation, with one corresponding to the mer operon and the remaining 15 associated with the hgc operon.