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Abstract
The massive quantities of phytoplankton in the North At- lantic and Antarctic oceans producing dimethylsulfoniopropi- onate (DMSP) as an osmoprotectant, much of which is de- graded by marine bacteria to dimethylsulfide (DMS), ensures an important role for both compounds in the global sulfur cycle. The closest to a comprehensive review on this topic is a book of symposium proceedings edited by Kiene et al. (75); the more recent developments related specifically to DMSP deg- radation by microbial communities are found elsewhere (68). This article is more comprehensive, as it includes some of the earlier literature in describing the sources of DMSP, its release and linkage to the marine (primarily microbial) food web and subsequent degradation via cleavage to DMS and acrylic acid or demethylation and demethiolation to methanethiol. DMS production from DMSP has long been associated with marine algae according to the following reaction (20, 22):