Premium
Frontispiece: Mercury(II) Binding to Metallothionein in Mytilus edulis revealed by High Energy‐Resolution XANES Spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Manceau Alain,
Bustamante Paco,
Haouz Ahmed,
Bourdineaud Jean Paul,
GonzalezRey Maria,
Lemouchi Cyprien,
GautierLuneau Isabelle,
Geertsen Valérie,
Barruet Elodie,
Rovezzi Mauro,
Glatzel Pieter,
Pin Serge
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201980461
Subject(s) - metallothionein , mercury (programming language) , chemistry , mytilus , in vivo , blue mussel , stereochemistry , biochemistry , biology , ecology , microbiology and biotechnology , computer science , gene , programming language
Blue mussel , a widely distributed filter‐feeder mollusk often used as a sentinel organism for marine pollutants, copes with metal toxicity by overexpressing metallothionein, represented as wicked enchantments on the frontispiece. Two mercury‐thiolate complexes were identified in metallothionein in response to in vivo Hg exposure using high energy‐resolution XANES spectroscopy. One is mononuclear and modeled as a bis‐six‐membered ring chelate through two axial sulfur atoms and two equatorial peptide oxygens from a CXXC motif. The other complex is polynuclear with a metacinnabar‐type (β‐HgS) core bound to the CXC motifs. We propose that the CXXC motif, only present in the α‐domain, acts as a nucleation center for the Hg clusters via metallophilic Hg‐Hg interactions. Results from this research provide a molecular understanding for the higher mercury affinity of the α than the β domain, and provide a foundation for understanding how metallothionein mediates the detoxification of toxic metals in the cell under in vivo conditions. For more details, see the Full Paper by A. Manceau et al. on page 997 ff.