Sequestration of total and methyl mercury in different subcellular pools in marine caged fish

Mercury contamination is an important issue in marine fish, and can cause toxicity to human by fish consumption. Many studies have measured the mercury concentrations in fish and estimated the threshold levels of its risk to human, but the mercury sequestration in different subcellular pools of fish is unclear. In this study, we investigated the concentration and distribution of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in different subcellular fractions in the farmed red seabream, red drum, and black seabream from Fujian marine fish farms, China. We found that both THg and MeHg were dominantly bound with the cellular debris, followed by metallothionein-like protein>metal-rich granule>heat-denatured protein>organelles pools. In general, Hg bound with the metal-sensitive fraction was small, indicating that Hg may have little toxicity to the fish (muscle). For the first time we showed that MTLP fraction had the highest % of total Hg as MeHg (88-91%) among all the subcellular fractions. Furthermore, the mercury concentration and subcellular distribution in the black seabream were both dependent on the fish size. Subcellular study may shed light on the detoxification of marine fish to Hg exposure and the potential bioavailability to humans due to fish consumption.