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Science 13 July 1990:
Vol. 249. no. 4965, pp. 152 - 154
DOI: 10.1126/science.249.4965.152
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Articles

A Thiosulfate Shunt in the Sulfur Cycle of Marine Sediments

Bo Barker Jørgensen 1

1 Department of Ecology and Genetics, University Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

The oxidation of sulfide, generated by bacterial sulfate reduction, is a key process in the biogeochemistry of marine sediments, yet the pathways and oxidants are poorly known. By the use of 35S-tracer studies of the S cycle in marine and freshwater sediments, a novel shunt function of thiosulfate (S2O32-) was identified. The S2O32- constituted 68 to 78 percent of the immediate HS--oxidation products and was concurrently (i) reduced back to HS-, (ii) oxidized to SO42-, and (iii) disproportionated to HS- + SO42-. The small thiosulfate pool is thus involved in a dynamic HS- - S2O32- cycle in anoxic sediments. The disproportionation of thiosulfate may help account for the large difference in isotopic composition (34S/32S) of sulfate and sulfides in sediments and sedimentary rocks.


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In Situ Analysis of Sulfur Species in Sulfur Globules Produced from Thiosulfate by Thermoanaerobacter sulfurigignens and Thermoanaerobacterium thermosulfurigenes.
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Hypersulfidic deep biosphere indicates extreme sulfur isotope fractionation during single-step microbial sulfate reduction.
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Biogeochemistry of Sulfur Isotopes.
D. E. Canfield (2001)
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 43, 607-636
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Excretion of thiosulphate, the main detoxification product of sulphide, by the lugworm arenicola marina L.
K Hauschild, W. Weber, W Clauss, and M. Grieshaber (1999)
J. Exp. Biol. 202, 855-866
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Elemental Sulfur and Thiosulfate Disproportionation by Desulfocapsa sulfoexigens sp. nov., a New Anaerobic Bacterium Isolated from Marine Surface Sediment.
K. Finster, W. Liesack, and B. Thamdrup (1998)
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The production of 34S-depleted sulfide during bacterial disproportionation of elemental sulfur.
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Mediation of Sulfur Speciation by a Black Sea Facultative Anaerobe.
K. A. Perry, K. A. Perry, J. E. Kostka, G. W. Luther III, and K. H. Nealson (1993)
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)