Danio rerio ABC transporter genes abcb3 and abcb7 play a protecting role against metal contamination

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) proteins are efflux transporters and some of them are involved in xenobiotic detoxification. The involvement of four zebrafish ABC transporters in cadmium, zinc and mercury detoxification was characterized in a metal hypersensitive mutant of Escherichia coli. The E. coli tolC mutant expressing ABCB3 or ABCB7 transporters exhibited higher survival ratios and lower metal accumulation under a metal exposure condition than the controls. For instance, in the presence of 8 and 10 μM of HgCl₂ , the survival ratios of bacteria expressing ABCB3 were four and six-times higher than the control whereas the mercury concentrations were 2.5 and 2-times lower than in the control. This work provides new data on the function of zebrafish ABCB3 and ABCB7 transporters and highlights their significance in metal detoxification. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.