Yeast, plants, worms, and flies use a methyltransferase to metabolize age-damaged (R,S)-AdoMet, but what do mammals do?

The biological methyl donor S-adenosyl-L-methionine [(S,S)-AdoMet] can spontaneously break down under physiological conditions to form the inactive diastereomer (R,S)-AdoMet, which may interfere with cell function. Although several lower organisms metabolize (R,S)-AdoMet via homocysteine methyltransferases, it is unclear how mammals deal with it. In this paper, we show that the mouse liver extracts, containing the BHMT-2 homocysteine methyltransferase candidate for a similar activity, recognizes (S,S)-AdoMet but not (R,S)-AdoMet. We find no evidence for the enzymatic breakdown of (R,S)-AdoMet in these extracts. Thus, mammals may metabolize (R,S)-AdoMet using a different strategy than other organisms.