Polar microbes and their implications in the aquatic mercury cycle Céline Lavergne 1,2 , Lars-Eric Heimbürger-Boavida 3 , Patricia Bovio-Winkler 4 , Aurélie Dufour 3 , Rolando Chamy 1 and Léa Cabrol 3 1 Centro de Estudios Avanzados, University of Playa Ancha, Viña del Mar, Chile // 2 Escuela Ingeniería Bioquimica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2085, Valparaíso, Chile // 3 Aix-Marseille University, Univ Toulon, CNRS, IRD – Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO, UM 110), 13288 Marseille, France // 4 Microbial Ecology Laboratory, Department of Microbial Biochemistry and Genomic, Biological Research Institute “Clemente Estable”, Montevideo, Uruguay