Novel enzyme for dimethyl sulfide-releasing in bacteria reveals a missing route in the marine sulfur cycle

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is an abundant and ubiquitous organosulfur molecule and plays important roles in the global sulfur cycle. Cleavage of DMSP produces volatile dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which has impacts on the global climate. Multiple pathways for DMSP catabolism have been identified. Here we identified yet another novel pathway, the ATP DMSP lysis pathway. The key enzyme, AcoD, is an ATP-dependent DMSP lyase. AcoD belongs to the acyl-CoA synthetase superfamily, which is totally different from other DMSP lyases, showing a new evolution route. AcoD catalyses the conversion of DMSP to DMS by a two-step reaction: the ligation of DMSP with CoA to form the intermediate DMSP-CoA, which is then cleaved to DMS and acryloyl-CoA. The novel catalytic mechanism was elucidated by structural and biochemical analyses. AcoD is widely distributed in many bacterial lineages including Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Firmicutes, revealing this new pathway plays important roles in global DMSP/DMS cycles.