bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.03.132969; this version posted June 4, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Mercury methylation by metabolically versatile and cosmopolitan marine 2 bacteria 3 4 Heyu Lin1, David B. Ascher2,3, Yoochan Myung2,3, Carl H. Lamborg4, Steven J. 5 Hallam5,6, Caitlin M. Gionfriddo7, Kathryn E. Holt8, 9 and John W. Moreau1,10,* 6 7 1School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, AUS 8 2Structural Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular 9 Biology, Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of 10 Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, AUS 11 3Computational Biology and Clinical Informatics, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, 12 PO Box 6492, Melbourne, VIC 3004, AUS 13 4Department of Ocean Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA 14 5Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, 15 Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, CA 16 6Genome Science and Technology Program, University of British Columbia, 17 Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, CA 18 7Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 19 37831, USA 20 8Department of Infectious Diseases, Central Clinical School, Monash University, VIC 21 3800, AUS 22 9Department of Infection Biology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 23 London WC1E 7HT, UK 24 10Currently at School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, 25 Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK 26 27 *Corresponding author:
[email protected] 28 The authors declare no competing interests.