Aromatic sulfonates (R-SO(3)(-)) can be used as sulfur sources by sulfate-starved bacteria in laboratory cultures and the corresponding phenols are excreted from the cells. The present study was conducted to demonstrate whether such desulfonation reactions also occur in sulfate-leached agricultural soil, where desulfonation of organic sulfur compounds may have agronomic importance as a S source...

Several low-molecular-weight sulfonates were added to microbial mat slurries to investigate their effects on sulfate reduction. Instantaneous production of sulfide occurred after taurine and cysteate were added to all of the microbial mats tested. The rates of production in the presence of taurine and cysteate were 35 and 24 microM HS(-) h(-1) in a stromatolite mat, 38 and 36 microM HS(-) h(-1)...

In humans, the biotransformation of cholesterol and its hydroxylated metabolites (oxysterols) by sulfonation is a fundamental process of great importance. Nevertheless, the sulfotransferase enzyme(s) that carries out this function has never been clearly identified. Cholesterol is a relatively poor substrate for the previously cloned hydroxysteroid sulfotransferase (HST), i.e. dehydroepiandroste...

Bifunctional acidic ionic liquids, having both H-imidazolium and -SO3H groups as cation moieties (H-BFAILs) and CF3SO3- as anion, were synthesized in high yields. These H-BFAILs showed significant hydrophilic properties, lower acidity and higher thermal stability relative to common ionic liquids, due to their unique structures. The (propyl or butyl-3-sulfonic) imidazolium trifluoromethane sulfo...