Genetic and phylogenetic analysis of dissimilatory iodate-reducing bacteria identifies potential niches across the world’s oceans

Iodine is oxidized and reduced as part of a biogeochemical cycle that is especially pronounced in the oceans, where the element naturally concentrates. The use of oxidized iodine in the form of iodate (IO(3)(−)) as an electron acceptor by microorganisms is poorly understood. Here, we outline genetic, physiological, and ecological models for dissimilatory IO(3)(−) reduction to iodide (I(−)) by a novel estuarine bacterium, Denitromonas sp. IR-12. Our results show that dissimilatory iodate reduction (DIR) by strain IR-12 is molybdenum-dependent and requires an IO(3)(−) reductase (idrA) and likely other genes in a mobile cluster with a conserved association across known and predicted DIR microorganisms (DIRM). Based on genetic and physiological data, we propose a model where three molecules of IO(3)(−) are likely reduced to three molecules of hypoiodous acid (HIO), which rapidly disproportionate into one molecule of IO(3)(−) and two molecules of iodide (I(−)), in a respiratory pathway that provides an energy yield equivalent to that of nitrate or perchlorate respiration. Consistent with the ecological niche expected of such a metabolism, idrA is enriched in the metagenome sequence databases of marine sites with a specific biogeochemical signature (high concentrations of nitrate and phosphate) and diminished oxygen. Taken together, these data suggest that DIRM help explain the disequilibrium of the IO(3)(−):I(−) concentration ratio above oxygen-minimum zones and support a widespread iodine redox cycle mediated by microbiology.