Widespread marine and freshwater distributions of active sulfoquinovose-degrading bacteria.

Authors

Guohua Liu, Xuanyun Qiu, Rongguang Cao, Changjie Dong, Quanrui Chen, Shujing Liu, Wenhao Li, Xuejing Li, Nianzhi Jiao, Spencer J Williams, Yao Zhang, Kai Tang

Published in

The ISME journal. Jun 17, 2026. Epub Jun 17, 2026.

Abstract

Sulfoquinovose (SQ), a sulfonated sugar produced on a gigaton scale each year, contributes to global sulfur cycling, yet the microbes and pathways mediating its turnover in the environment have been inferred largely from genomic potential rather than direct activity. Here, we coupled incubations of environmental samples with 13C-labeled SQ to DNA-stable isotope probing to identify active SQ carbon assimilators across estuary, mangrove, and lake ecosystems. In estuarine communities, Vibrio and Cognatishimia incorporated SQ-derived 13C; Novosphingobium dominated in the mangrove, and Agrobacterium in the lake. Pure-culture experiments, coupled with comparative proteomics and gene knockout validation, demonstrated that Vibrio strains degrade SQ via modified sulfoglycolytic Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas and Entner-Doudoroff pathways to produce the environmentally significant organosulfur dihydroxypropanesulfonate. Comparative genomic analyses suggested that closely related genome representatives of Novosphingobium, Cognatishimia, and Agrobacterium encode the sulfolytic SQ monooxygenase pathway. A global survey of aquatic microbial genomes indicated that over 9% harbor SQ degradation clusters, supporting a widespread distribution of bacterial SQ catabolic potential in aquatic environments.

PMID:
42308402
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Jun 2026.

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