Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine whether metallothionein (MT) expression was related to Cd accumulation in hard clams ( Meretrix lusoria). We cloned clam MT. Then a specific primer for the hard clam was designed for MT mRNA measurements using real-time PCR. The hard clams were exposed to 50, 200, and 1000 μg/L cadmium (Cd) for 1, 3, 5, and 7 days, to determine the relationship between MT mRNA relative quantity (RQ) levels and Cd accumulation. The following results were obtained: (1) the cloned MT, consisting of 228 bp encoding a protein of 76 amino acids showed higher than 55% identity with the deduced amino acid sequence previously published for another bivalve. (2) Both MT mRNA expression and Cd accumulation appeared to be dose-responsive following cadmium treatment for 1, 3 and 5 days, respectively; however, no time-dependent responses were found. According to these results, MT mRNA expression levels can be used as an indicator to monitor the concentrations of Cd in aquaculture farms.
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