Toxicogenomic Responses to Inorganic and Organic Mercury in Caenorhabditis elegans

Humans are exposed to both inorganic and organic mercury. While the toxicity of mercury is well established, much remains to be resolved about how different mercurials act at the molecular level. To address this issue, we employed a toxicogenomics approach using the nematode C. elegans. Using sub-, low- or high-toxic exposures of either HgCl2 or CH3HgCl the effects of these mercurials on steady-state mRNA levels for the entire genome were determined. A total of 473 and 2,865 genes were differentially expressed in the HgCl2 and CH3HgCl treatments, respectively. Hierarchical clustering, principal components and pattern analyses indicated that the transcriptional responses of the mercurials were unique.人类可同时接触无机汞与有机汞。尽管汞的毒性已得到广泛证实，但不同汞类化合物在分子层面的作用机制仍有诸多亟待阐明之处。为解决这一问题，本研究以秀丽隐杆线虫（Caenorhabditis elegans，C. elegans）为模型，采用毒理基因组学（toxicogenomics）方法开展实验。我们分别设置亚毒性、低毒性与高毒性暴露梯度，以氯化汞（HgCl₂）和氯化甲基汞（CH₃HgCl）为受试试剂，测定了这两种汞化合物对全基因组稳态mRNA水平的影响。在氯化汞与氯化甲基汞处理组中，分别有473个和2865个基因发生差异表达。层级聚类分析、主成分分析及模式分析结果表明，两种汞化合物的转录响应特征各具特异性。