Fungi are overlooked dimethylsulfoniopropionate degraders in marine environments

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a key marine organosulfur compound, whose microbial catabolism is critical to global sulfur cycling and is the major source of the climate-active gas dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Research has focused on bacterial and algal DMSP catabolism, potentially overlooking the importance of fungi. Here, we vastly extend the known diversity of fungi that cleave DMSP to DMS, showing that many lacked known DMSP lyases, and Pezizomycotina members were most active. The marine-derived yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium melanogenum imported DMSP for osmoprotection, and assimilated it via a previously unreported and efficient cupin-family cytoplasmic DMSP lyase, termed DddF. The DddF co-product, acrylate, was catabolized to acryloyl-CoA in the cytoplasm, with subsequent metabolism occurring in mitochondria. Functional dddF genes are widely found across major fungal classes (e.g., Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes) common throughout marine ecosystems. Thus, the fungal capacity to catabolize DMSP is far more prevalent than previously believed, highlighting their potential importance in marine sulfur cycling and DMS production.

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Publication Details

Journal
The ISME Journal
Published
2026-10-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ismejo/wrag269
Primary Topic
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Fungi are overlooked dimethylsulfoniopropionate degraders in marine environments

Eva Breyer, Federico Baltar, Guang-Lei Liu, Ummay Honi et al.
The ISME Journal
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
article

Fungi are overlooked dimethylsulfoniopropionate degraders in marine environments

Eva Breyer, Federico Baltar, Guang-Lei Liu, Ummay Honi, Isabelle S. R. Storer, Stefan M. Bidula, Tianjiao Zhu, Jonathan D. Todd, Nan Zhang, Chunyang Li, Yu‐Zhong Zhang, Yu Wang, Ji-Zheng Song, Fu-Hui Zheng, Alice Fredriksson, Özlem Pullin, Zengtian Gu, Zhao-Lei Zhang, Min Zhang
article en

Abstract

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a key marine organosulfur compound, whose microbial catabolism is critical to global sulfur cycling and is the major source of the climate-active gas dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Research has focused on bacterial and algal DMSP catabolism, potentially overlooking the importance of fungi. Here, we vastly extend the known diversity of fungi that cleave DMSP to DMS, showing that many lacked known DMSP lyases, and Pezizomycotina members were most active. The marine-derived yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium melanogenum imported DMSP for osmoprotection, and assimilated it via a previously unreported and efficient cupin-family cytoplasmic DMSP lyase, termed DddF. The DddF co-product, acrylate, was catabolized to acryloyl-CoA in the cytoplasm, with subsequent metabolism occurring in mitochondria. Functional dddF genes are widely found across major fungal classes (e.g., Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes) common throughout marine ecosystems. Thus, the fungal capacity to catabolize DMSP is far more prevalent than previously believed, highlighting their potential importance in marine sulfur cycling and DMS production.

The ISME Journal
University of East Anglia (GB), Qilu University of Technology (CN), Norwich Research Park (GB), Quadram Institute (GB), Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (CN), Shanghai Ocean University (CN), Ocean University of China (CN), Shandong University of Science and Technology (CN)
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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