A Novel Role of MerC in Methylmercury Transport and Phytoremediation of Methylmercury Contamination
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- Sone Yuka
- Department of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, Kitasato University
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- Uraguchi Shimpei
- Department of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, Kitasato University
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- Takanezawa Yasukazu
- Department of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, Kitasato University
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- Nakamura Ryosuke
- Department of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, Kitasato University
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- Pan-Hou Hidemitsu
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Setsunan University
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- Kiyono Masako
- Department of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, Kitasato University
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Abstract
<p>MerC, encoded by merC in the transposon Tn21 mer operon, is a heavy metal transporter with potential applications for phytoremediation of heavy metals such as mercuric ion and cadmium. In this study, we demonstrate that MerC also acts as a transporter for methylmercury. When MerC was expressed in Escherichia coli XL1-Blue, cells became hypersensitive to CH3Hg(I) and the uptake of CH3Hg(I) by these cells was higher than that by cells of the isogenic strain. Moreover, transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing bacterial MerC or MerC fused to plant soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) accumulated CH3Hg(I) effectively and their growth was comparable to the wild-type plants. These results demonstrate that when the bacterium-derived merC gene is ectopically introduced in genetically modified plants, MerC expression in the transgenic plants promotes the transport and sequestration of methylmercury. Thus, our results show that the expression of merC in Arabidopsis results in transgenic plants that could be used for the phytoremediation and elimination of toxic methylmercury from the environment.</p>
Journal
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- Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
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Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 40 (7), 1125-1128, 2017
The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan
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Details
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- CRID
- 1390282679608029056
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- NII Article ID
- 130006846433
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- NII Book ID
- AA10885497
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- ISSN
- 13475215
- 09186158
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- NDL BIB ID
- 028313521
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- PubMed
- 28674257
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- Text Lang
- en
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- Data Source
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- JaLC
- NDL
- Crossref
- PubMed
- CiNii Articles
- KAKEN
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- Abstract License Flag
- Disallowed