title: Demethylation of methylmercury in growing rice plants: An evidence of self-detoxification.
abstract: Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant that poses a serious threat to human and the environment. Rice was found as an important source for human exposure to Hg in some areas. In this study, the transportation and transformation of IHg and MeHg in rice plants exposed to IHg or MeHg were investigated. The IHg and MeHg concentrations in rice roots and shoots collected every five days were analyzed by HPLC-ICP-MS and SR-XANES. When exposed to MeHg, the percent of IHg in rice roots and shoots increased while MeHg decreased significantly, suggesting prominent demethylation of MeHg occurred. However no notable MeHg was found in both roots and shoots of rice plant when exposed to IHg. SR-XANES analysis further confirmed the demethylation of MeHg with rice. This study provides a new finding that demethylation of MeHg could occur in growing rice, which may be a self-defense process of rice plant.
authors.affiliation: State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Mercury Pollution Prevention and Control, and Laboratory of Metallomics and Nanometallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Mercury Pollution Prevention and Control, and Laboratory of Metallomics and Nanometallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Jiating
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Mercury Pollution Prevention and Control, and Laboratory of Metallomics and Nanometallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yunyun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shandong Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Jinan 250001, China.
authors.forename: Yuqin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Proteomics, Protein Science Core Facility Center, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Nali
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Mercury Pollution Prevention and Control, and Laboratory of Metallomics and Nanometallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yuxi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Mercury Pollution Prevention and Control, and Laboratory of Metallomics and Nanometallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Bai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Day School, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Hanyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Mercury Pollution Prevention and Control, and Laboratory of Metallomics and Nanometallomics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: liyf@ihep.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yu-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D008658:Inactivation, Metabolic; D008745:Methylation; D008767:Methylmercury Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D012275:Oryza / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008767:Methylmercury Compounds
keywords: Demethylation; Inorganic mercury; Methylmercury; Rice; SR-XANES