Confirmation of the Biomethylation of Antimony Compounds

Abstract

We have evidence that an organic and an inorganic salt of antimony were reduced and methylated biologically by microorganisms in laboratory experiments. The organoantimony compound produced was trimethylstibine [(CH₃)₃Sb] and was detected in a culture headspace. This was confirmed by matching the compound's retention time in capillary gas chromatography, as detected by fluorine-induced chemiluminescence, with a com- mercial standard and by its mass spectrum determined with gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC–MS). (CH₃)₃Sb was detected in the headspace of soil samples amended with either potassium antimonyltartrate or potassium hexahydroxyantimonate and augmented with any one of three different nitrate-containing growth media. The identity of the microorganisms in soil that accomplished this are as yet unknown. Of 48 soil samples amended with these two compounds, 24 produced trimethylstibine. Bioreduction of trimethyldibromoantimony was also detected in a liquid monoculture of Pseudomonas fluorescens K27 which also produced tri- methylstibine. This headspace production of (CH₃)₃Sb was determined to be linked to the culture's cell population as measured by optical density. This microbe, however, did not biomethylate either potassium antimonyltartrate or potassium hexahydroxyantimonate in any experiments we performed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.