title: Toxic effects of mercury on the cell nucleus of Dictyostelium discoideum.
abstract: Governmental agencies (www.epa.gov/mercury) and the scientific community have reported on the high toxicity due to mercury. Indeed, exposure to mercury can cause severe injury to the central nervous system and kidney in humans. Beyond its recognized toxicity, little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms involved in the actions of this heavy metal. Mercury has been also observed to form insoluble fibrous protein aggregates in the cell nucleus. We used D. discoideum to evaluate micronuclei formation and, since mercury is able to induce oxidative stress that could bring to protein aggregation, we assessed nuclear protein carbonylation by Western Blot. We observed a significant increase in micronuclei formation and 14 carbonylated proteins were identified. Moreover, we used isotope-coded protein label (ICPL) and mass spectrometry analysis of proteins obtained by lysis of purified nuclei, before of tryptic digestion to quantify nuclear proteins affected by mercury. In particular, we examined the effects of mercury that associate a classical genotoxic assay to proteomic effects into the nucleus. The data present direct evidences for mercury genotoxicity, nuclear protein carbonylation, quantitative change in core histones, and the involvement of pseudouridine synthase in mercury toxicity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 32: 417-425, 2017.
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and Technological Innovation (DiSIT), Università Del Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro", Viale Teresa Michel, Alessandria, 11-15121, Italy.
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Boatti
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and Technological Innovation (DiSIT), Università Del Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro", Viale Teresa Michel, Alessandria, 11-15121, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rapallo
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and Technological Innovation (DiSIT), Università Del Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro", Viale Teresa Michel, Alessandria, 11-15121, Italy.
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viarengo
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and Technological Innovation (DiSIT), Università Del Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro", Viale Teresa Michel, Alessandria, 11-15121, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marsano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000187:drug effects*; D015723:Gene Library; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D019751:Intramolecular Transferases / Q000378:metabolism; D008628:Mercury / Q000633:toxicity*; D015162:Micronucleus Tests; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects; D050050:Protein Carbonylation / Q000187:drug effects; D011492:Protein Hydrolysates / Q000737:chemistry; D040901:Proteomics
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011492:Protein Hydrolysates; D019751:Intramolecular Transferases; C096995:pseudouridine synthases; D008628:Mercury
keywords: cell nucleus; mercury; micronucleus test; protein carbonylation; proteomics