Generation of Mt3 Homozygote murine ES cell lines via CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

Metallothioneins belong to a superfamily of intracellular metal-binding proteins, have bearing on almost all biochemical processes,include free radical scavenging, apoptosis, regulation of intracellular redox balance, and anti-inflammatory processes. By using a CRISPR/Cas 9 system, we generated Mt3-/- mES line. This cell line has contributed to further investigation of the functions of Mtt3 during early development, as well as a cell model for screening for metal-related detoxificationan and antioxidant response phenotype during stem cell differentiation.

Selenium modulates cadmium-induced ultrastructural and metabolic changes in cucumber seedlings.

Intensive insight into the potential mechanisms of Se-induced Cd tolerance in cucumber seedlings is essential for further improvement of vegetable crop cultivation and breeding to obtain high yields and quality in Cd-contaminated soil. To reveal the ultrastructural and metabolic differences in Se-induced Cd tolerance, we examined the ultrastructures of chloroplasts and root cells and characterised 155 differentially expressed metabolites under Cd and/or Se stress using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics. Exogenous Se greatly relieved Cd-caused injuries to the ultrastructures of cucumber leaves and roots; for example, the shapes of chloroplasts treated with Cd + Se improved or even began to return to normal, the nuclei of root cells began to regenerate better and the chromatin was well-distributed compared with plants treated with Cd alone. Metabolite profiling revealed several intermediates of glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle; also, some amino acids were up-accumulated in Cd + Se-treated cucumber seedlings and down-accumulated in Cd-treated cucumber seedlings, such as pyruvic acid, galactose, lactose, glutaric acid and alanine in leaves, glucose-6-phosphate and serine in roots, and lactic acid and glycine in both leaves and roots. These metabolites may play dominant roles in developing Se-mediated Cd tolerance. Moreover, a high level of sugars and polyols, amino acids and organic acids were up-accumulated in Cd-treated plants. Meanwhile, our data suggest that high accumulation of fructose, α-ketoglutaric acid, shikimic acid, fumaric acid and succinic acid in roots is a Cd-specific response, indicating that these metabolites are vital for cucumbers to develop Cd resistance. This study extends the current understanding of the mechanisms of Se in abating Cd contamination in cucumber and demonstrates that metabolomics profiling provides a more comprehensive view of the response of plants to heavy metals.

Functional comparision between truncated MTT1 and truncated MTT2 from Tetrahyemna thermophila.

Metallothioneins (MTs) are low-molecular-weight proteins with high Cys content and high metal-chelating ability. CdMT and CuMT subfamilies present different characteristics in Tetrahymena. To explore the effect of the cysteine arrangement and sequence length of MTs for binding different metal ions, MTT1, truncated MTT1 (TM1), MTT2, and truncated MTT2 (TM2) were expressed in E. coli. The half-maximal inhibiting concentrations (IC50) of Cd2+ and Cu+ for the recombinant strains were different. Furthermore, E. coli cells expressing MTT1 and TM1 exhibited higher accumulating ability for Cd2+ than cells expressing MTT2 and TM2. However, the opposite is true for Cu+. The binding ability of the different recombinant proteins to Cd2+ and Cu+ were also different. MTT1 and truncated mutant TM1 were the preference for Cd2+, whereas MTT2 and truncated mutant TM2 were the preference for Cu+ coordination. These results showed that metal ion tolerance and accumulation ability not only depended on cysteine arrangement pattern but also on sequence length of MT in Tetrahymena.

Functional analysis of metallothionein MTT5 from Tetrahymena thermophila.

Metallothioneins (MTs) constitute a superfamily of cysteine-rich proteins that bind heavy-metal ions by metal-thiolate clusters. Five MT genes from Tetrahymena thermophila was subdivided into 7a (MTT1, MTT3, and MTT5) and 7b (MTT2 and MTT4) subfamilies. In the study, MTT5 was knocked out in Tetrahymena. The mutant cells were sensitive to Cd2+ and Pb2+ but poorly sensitive to Cu+ . In the MTT5 knockout cells, the expression levels of MTT1 and MTT3 were significantly up-regulated under Cd2+ and Pb2+ stresses, whereas the expression levels of MTT2 and MTT4 were significantly up-regulated under Cu+ stress relative to those in the wild-type cells. Furthermore, recombinant GST-MTT5 was expressed in Escherichia coli/pGEX-MTT5 and purified by affinity chromatography. Fluorescence quenching analysis showed that apoMTT5 can bind 8 Cd2+ , 8 Pb2+ , and 12 Cu+ . The metal-binding ability of the MTT5 complex followed the order of Pb2+ > Cd2+ > Cu+ . Meanwhile, the half-maximal inhibitory concentrations of the heavy-metal ions for E. coli/pGEX-MTT5 were as follows: Cu+ (483.9 µM) > Pb2+ (410.7 µM) > Cd2+ (130.8 µM). The accumulation of Cd2+ , Pb2+ , and Cu+ in the E. coli/pGEX-MTT5 was enhanced relative to that of E. coli/pGEX-4T. Results suggested that different MTs functionally compensated in Tetrahymena, and MTT5 was a potential candidate for cadmium and lead bioremediation.