Isolation and characterization of a new arsenic methylating bacterium from soil.

An arsenic resistant and arsenic methylating bacterium belonging to the Flavobacterium-Cytophaga group was isolated from soil with an arsenic content of 1.5 ppm. The growth of the bacterium is enhanced in the presence of As compounds in concentrations up to 200 ppm in the cultural media with a stronger effect of As(V) than of As(III) compounds. As a volatile product of the methylation of both NaH2AsO3 and NaH2AsO4 exclusively, Me3As was formed and detected by mass spectrometry. Quantitative aspects of the methylation were studied with GC/MS. The intracellular accumulation of arsenic in the methylating strain was compared with two non methylating strains from the same soil.