Nutrient availability drives community structure and ecosystem processes, especially in tropical lagoons that are typically oligotrophic but often receive allochthonous inputs from land. Terrestrially derived nutrients are introduced to tropical lagoons by surface runoff and submarine groundwater discharge, which are influenced by seasonal precipitation. However, terrigenous inputs presumably diminish along the onshore–offshor...

Summary A new pathway of dimethylsulfide (DMS) metabolism was identified in a novel species of Gammaproteobacteria , Methylophaga thiooxidans sp. nov., in which tetrathionate (S 4 O 6 2− ) was the end‐product of DMS oxidation. Inhibitor evidence indicated that DMS degradation was initiated by demethylation, catalysed by a corrinoid demethylase. Thiosulfate was an intermediate, which was oxidized to tetrathionate by a cytochrom...

Summary Enrichment and elective culture for methylotrophs from sediment of the River Thames in central London yielded a diversity of pure cultures representing several genera of Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria, which were mainly of organisms not generally regarded as typically methylotrophic. Substrates leading to successful isolations included methanol, monomethylamine, dimethylamine, trimethylamine, methanesulfonate...

Summary Diverse methylotrophic bacteria were isolated from the tongue, and supra‐ and subgingival plaque in the mouths of volunteers and patients with periodontitis. One‐carbon compounds such as dimethylsulfide in the mouth are likely to be used as growth substrates for these organisms. Methylotrophic strains of Bacillus , Brevibacterium casei , Hyphomicrobium sulfonivorans , Methylobacterium , Micrococcus luteus and Variovora...

Summary Three novel strains of methylotrophic Afipia felis were isolated from several locations on Signy Island, Antarctica, and a fourth from estuary sediment from the River Douro, Portugal. They were identified as strains of the α‐2 proteobacterium A. felis by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Two strains tested were shown to contain the fdxA gene, diagnostic for A. felis . All strains grew with methanesulfonate (and two stra...

Summary This is the first study to demonstrate that diverse methylotrophic bacteria occur in the human foot microflora. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of DNA from the soles and toe clefts of feet of five subjects indicated Methylobacterium strains to be present in all cases. Polymerase chain reaction amplification also showed the gene for the α‐subunit of methanol dehydrogenase ( mxaF ) to be present in all samp...