title: Generation of mt:egfp transgenic zebrafish biosensor for the detection of aquatic zinc and cadmium.
abstract: Zebrafish embryo toxicity testing has become a popular method for detecting environmental pollutions. However, the present research showed that zebrafish embryos exhibited no visible paramorphia, malformation, or mortality when exposed to heavy metals in a range above environmental standard limits, indicating that zebrafish embryos are an imprecise model for monitoring environmental heavy metals concentrations above regulatory limits. Aiming to obtain a biosensor for aquatic heavy metals, a metal-sensitive vector including zebrafish metallothionein (MT) promoter and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was reconstructed and microinjected into 1-cell stage zebrafish embryos. The authors obtained an mt:egfp transgenic zebrafish line sensitive to aquatic zinc and cadmium. A quantitative experiment showed that zinc and cadmium treatment significantly induced the expression of EGFP in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In particular, EGFP messenger RNA levels increased remarkably when exposed to heavy metals above the standard limits. The results suggest that the transgenic zebrafish is a highly sensitive biosensor for detecting environmental levels of zinc and cadmium. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2066-2073. © 2016 SETAC.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yanchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002104:Cadmium / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015032:Zinc / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D002104:Cadmium; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008668:Metallothionein; D015032:Zinc
keywords: Biomonitoring; Cadmium; Transgenic zebrafish; Water quality criteria; Zinc