Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.The compounds of mercury can be more toxic than those of any other non-radioactive heavy element. Despite this, environmental mercury pollution and human exposure to mercury are widespread, and are increasing. While the unusual ability of selenium to cancel the...

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Main Authors: MacDonald, T., Korbas, M., James, A., Sylvain, N., Hackett, Mark, Nehzati, S., Krone, P., George, G., Pickering, I.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8705
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author MacDonald, T.
Korbas, M.
James, A.
Sylvain, N.
Hackett, Mark
Nehzati, S.
Krone, P.
George, G.
Pickering, I.
author_facet MacDonald, T.
Korbas, M.
James, A.
Sylvain, N.
Hackett, Mark
Nehzati, S.
Krone, P.
George, G.
Pickering, I.
author_sort MacDonald, T.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.The compounds of mercury can be more toxic than those of any other non-radioactive heavy element. Despite this, environmental mercury pollution and human exposure to mercury are widespread, and are increasing. While the unusual ability of selenium to cancel the toxicity of mercury compounds has been known for nearly five decades, only recently have some aspects of the molecular mechanisms begun to be understood. We report herein a study of the interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish, a model vertebrate system, using X-ray fluorescence imaging. Exposure of larval zebrafish to inorganic mercury shows nano-scale structures containing co-localized mercury and selenium. No such co-localization is seen with methylmercury exposure under similar conditions. Micro X-ray absorption spectra support the hypothesis that the co-localized deposits are most likely comprised of highly insoluble mixed chalcogenide HgS<inf>x</inf>Se<inf>(1-x)</inf> where x is 0.4-0.9, probably with the cubic zincblende structure.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-87052017-09-13T14:52:04Z Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model MacDonald, T. Korbas, M. James, A. Sylvain, N. Hackett, Mark Nehzati, S. Krone, P. George, G. Pickering, I. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.The compounds of mercury can be more toxic than those of any other non-radioactive heavy element. Despite this, environmental mercury pollution and human exposure to mercury are widespread, and are increasing. While the unusual ability of selenium to cancel the toxicity of mercury compounds has been known for nearly five decades, only recently have some aspects of the molecular mechanisms begun to be understood. We report herein a study of the interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish, a model vertebrate system, using X-ray fluorescence imaging. Exposure of larval zebrafish to inorganic mercury shows nano-scale structures containing co-localized mercury and selenium. No such co-localization is seen with methylmercury exposure under similar conditions. Micro X-ray absorption spectra support the hypothesis that the co-localized deposits are most likely comprised of highly insoluble mixed chalcogenide HgS<inf>x</inf>Se<inf>(1-x)</inf> where x is 0.4-0.9, probably with the cubic zincblende structure. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8705 10.1039/c5mt00145e restricted
spellingShingle MacDonald, T.
Korbas, M.
James, A.
Sylvain, N.
Hackett, Mark
Nehzati, S.
Krone, P.
George, G.
Pickering, I.
Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
title Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
title_full Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
title_fullStr Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
title_full_unstemmed Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
title_short Interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
title_sort interaction of mercury and selenium in the larval stage zebrafish vertebrate model
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8705