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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2002, p. 3146-3149, Vol. 184, No. 11
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.11.3146-3149.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Methylation of Inorganic and Organic Selenium by the Bacterial Thiopurine Methyltransferase

Lionel Ranjard,^, Claire Prigent-Combaret, Sylvie Nazaret, and Benoit Cournoyer^*

UMR CNRS 5557—Ecologie Microbienne (Center for Microbial Ecology), Université Claude Bernard—Lyon I, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France

Received 17 December 2001/ Accepted 6 March 2002

Escherichia coli cells expressing the tpm gene encoding the bacterial thiopurine methyltransferase (bTPMT) are shown to methylate selenite and (methyl)selenocysteine into dimethylselenide (DMSe) and dimethyldiselenide (DMDSe). E. coli cells expressing tpm from a gene library cosmid clone (harboring a Pseudomonas syringae insert of about 20 kb) also methylated selenate into DMSe and DMDSe. bTPMT is the first methyltransferase shown to be involved in the methylation of these selenium derivatives.

Present address: Laboratoire de Microbiologie du Sol, INRA/CMSE, 21065 Dijon, France.

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