Responsiveness of metallothionein and hemocyanin genes to cadmium and copper exposure in the garden snail Cornu aspersum.

ABSTRACT: Terrestrial gastropods express metal-selective metallothioneins (MTs) by which they handle metal ions such as Zn²⁺ , Cd²⁺ , and Cu⁺ /Cu²⁺ through separate metabolic pathways. At the same time, they depend on the availability of sufficient amounts of Cu as an essential constituent of their respiratory protein, hemocyanin (Hc). It was, therefore, suggested that in snails Cu-dependent MT and Hc pathways might be metabolically connected. In fact, the Cu-specific snail MT (CuMT) is exclusively expressed in rhogocytes, a particular molluscan cell type present in the hemocoel and connective tissues. Snail rhogocytes are also the sites of Hc synthesis. In the present study, possible interactions between the metal-regulatory and detoxifying activity of MT

SUBMITTER: Pedrini-Martha V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7984241 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature