Abstract
Terrestrial gastropods have long been known to avidly accumulate trace elements such as copper, zinc and cadmium in their soft tissues [1,2]. It has been suggested that this extraordinary accumulation potential of terrestrial snails may be related to their being forced to avoid any substantial loss of water which might occur upon excretion of excessive amounts of trace elements [3]. As a probable consequence of such physiological constraints, land snails have developed efficient mechanisms of retaining and detoxifying trace elements within their body. Consequently, some snail and slug species belong to those animals exhibiting the highest concentration factors for cadmium ever recorded among soil invertebrates, which lead to the discovery of metallothioneins (MTs) in these organisms [3–6].
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