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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Early-life exposure to methylmercury in wildtype and pdr-1/parkin knockout C. elegans.

Authors: Martinez-Finley, Ebany J; Chakraborty, Sudipta; Slaughter, James C; Aschner, Michael

Published In Neurochem Res, (2013 Aug)

Abstract: We examined the impact of early-life exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) on Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) pdr-1 mutants, addressing gene-environment interactions. We tested the hypothesis that early-life exposure to MeHg and knockout (KO) of pdr-1 (mammalian: parkin/PARK2) exacerbates MeHg toxicity and damage to the dopaminergic (DAergic) system. pdr-1KO worms showed increased lethality and decreased lifespan following MeHg exposure. Mercury (Hg) content, measured with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was increased in pdr-1KO worms compared to wildtype (N2) controls. 2'7' dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate assay revealed a significant increase in reactive oxygen species in both strains following MeHg exposure; however, while N2 worms showed an increase in skn-1 transcript levels following MeHg exposure, there was no difference in skn-1 induction in pdr-1KO worms. Dopamine-dependent behavioral analysis revealed an effect of MeHg on N2 wildtype worms, but no effect on pdr-1KO worms. Taken together, these results suggest that pdr-1KO worms are more sensitive to MeHg than wildtype worms, but MeHg does not exacerbate behavioral changes related to the absence of pdr-1.

PubMed ID: 23609499 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Animals; Base Sequence; Caenorhabditis elegans/drug effects*; Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics; Caenorhabditis elegans/metabolism; DNA Primers; Environmental Exposure; Mass Spectrometry; Methylmercury Compounds/toxicity*; Reactive Oxygen Species/metabolism; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases/genetics*

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