Mechanistic pathways of mercury removal from the organomercurial lyase active site.

Bacterial populations present in Hg-rich environments have evolved biological mechanisms to detoxify methylmercury and other organometallic mercury compounds. The most common resistance mechanism relies on the H(+)-assisted cleavage of the Hg-C bond of methylmercury by the organomercurial lyase MerB. Although the initial reaction steps which lead to the loss of methane from methylmercury have already been studied experimentally and computationally, the reaction steps leading to the removal of Hg(2+) from MerB and regeneration of the active site for a new round of catalysis have not yet been elucidated.