Premium
Generation of mt:egfp transgenic zebrafish biosensor for the detection of aquatic zinc and cadmium
Author(s) -
Liu Lili,
Yan Yanchun,
Wang Jian,
Wu Wei,
Xu Lei
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.3362
Subject(s) - zebrafish , metallothionein , green fluorescent protein , cadmium , zinc , transgene , embryo , zinc toxicity , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , toxicity , chemistry , heavy metals , environmental chemistry , biochemistry , gene , organic chemistry
Zebrafish embryo toxicity testing has become a popular method for detecting environmental pollutions. However, the present research showed that zebrafish embryos exhibited no visible paramorphia, malformation, or mortality when exposed to heavy metals in a range above environmental standard limits, indicating that zebrafish embryos are an imprecise model for monitoring environmental heavy metals concentrations above regulatory limits. Aiming to obtain a biosensor for aquatic heavy metals, a metal‐sensitive vector including zebrafish metallothionein (MT) promoter and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was reconstructed and microinjected into 1‐cell stage zebrafish embryos. The authors obtained an mt:egfp transgenic zebrafish line sensitive to aquatic zinc and cadmium. A quantitative experiment showed that zinc and cadmium treatment significantly induced the expression of EGFP in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner. In particular, EGFP messenger RNA levels increased remarkably when exposed to heavy metals above the standard limits. The results suggest that the transgenic zebrafish is a highly sensitive biosensor for detecting environmental levels of zinc and cadmium. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2066–2073. © 2016 SETAC