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Title: Deletion of phytochelatin synthase modulates the metal accumulation pattern of cadmium exposed C. elegans

Journal Article · · International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Online)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17020257· OSTI ID:1240007
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. King's College London, London (United Kingdom)
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
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Here, environmental metal pollution is a growing health risk to flora and fauna. It is therefore important to fully elucidate metal detoxification pathways. Phytochelatin synthase (PCS), an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of phytochelatins (PCs), plays an important role in cadmium detoxification. The PCS and PCs are however not restricted to plants, but are also present in some lower metazoans. The model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, for example, contains a fully functional phytochelatin synthase and phytochelatin pathway. By means of a transgenic nematode strain expressing a pcs-1 promoter-tagged GFP (pcs-1::GFP) and a pcs-1 specific qPCR assay, further evidence is presented that the expression of the C. elegans phytochelatin synthase gene (pcs-1) is transcriptionally non-responsive to a chronic (48 h) insult of high levels of zinc (500 μM) or acute (3 h) exposures to high levels of cadmium (300 μM). However, the accumulation of cadmium, but not zinc, is dependent on the pcs-1 status of the nematode. Synchrotron based X-ray fluorescence imaging uncovered that the cadmium body burden increased significantly in the pcs-1(tm1748) knockout allele. Taken together, this suggests that whilst the transcription of pcs-1 may not be mediated by an exposure zinc or cadmium, it is nevertheless an integral part of the cadmium detoxification pathway in C. elegans.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1240007
Journal Information:
International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Online), Vol. 17, Issue 2; ISSN 1422-0067
Publisher:
MDPICopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (20)

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Cited By (2)

Molecular genetic and biochemical characterization of a putative family of zinc metalloproteins in Caenorhabditis elegans journal January 2018
Orchestration of dynamic copper navigation – new and missing pieces journal January 2017

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
C. elegans
nematode
phytochelatin synthase
X-ray fluorescence microscopy