[4] The structure of this coenzyme was discovered by CD Taylor and RS Wolfe in 1974 while they were studying methanogenesis, the process by which carbon dioxide is transformed into methane in some archaea.

Mercaptoethanesulfonate contains both a thiol, which is the main site of reactivity, and a sulfonate group, which confers solubility in aqueous media.

CH3-S-CoM is produced by the MtaA-catalyzed reaction between a methylated version of monomethylamine corrinoid protein MtmC and HS-CoM.

The methylated version of MtmC is in turn produced by a cobamide-dependent methyltransferase that uses trimethylamine (TMA), dimethylamine (DMA), or monomethylamine (MMA) as the mehyl donor.

Alkene-oxidizing bacteria like Xanthobacter autotrophicus[4] use a metabolic pathway in which CoM is conjugated with an aliphatic epoxide.