Effects of dietary methylmercury on the Zebrafish (Danio rerio) liver proteome

Methylmercury (MeHg) is an aquatic pollutant. It is produced from HgS by the action of sulphate-reducing bacteria and is released in fresh waters. MeHg is bioaccumulated through the trophic chain and is known to cause different health troubles (trembling, memory loss, anemia and kidney deficiency). Toxic exogenous substances, such as MeHg, are transformed by liver’s metabolic pathway, making this the starting point of vertebrate detoxication. Almost 50% of MeHg assimilated in hepatocytes is accumulated in mitochondria (Ware et al.,1975) and It has been suggested that it may uncouples OXPHOS (Mori et al., 2007). The aim of this study was to identify the proteomics modifications of the liver mitochondrial proteome in response to a chronic MeHg intoxication by using the 2D DIGE methodology (Figure 1). Fishes were fed with two different contaminated diets (6.5 and 13.5 µg of MeHgCl / g of dry food.). We have also performed functional assays in order to confirm the MeHg uncoupling effect on Salmo truita liver mitochondria