Elevated Temperature Promotes Metal Clearance in Chaeturichthys stigmatias with Glycolysis-Linked Signatures

Elevated temperature reshapes physiological processes in aquatic ectotherms, yet how warming influences metal retention and clearance remains insufficiently resolved in fish. Here, we examined temperature-linked variation in tissue metal burdens in the demersal fish Chaeturichthys stigmatias. Across environmentally relevant temperature gradients, muscle concentrations of multiple metals declined with increasing temperature, with the strongest pattern observed for Pb. To explore mechanistic plausibility, we profiled Pb-associated protein fractions using SEC-ICP-MS and found that Pb-binding fractions were enriched for carbohydrate metabolism annotations, including glycolysis-related proteins. In parallel, metabolic perturbation assays indicated that cellular Pb accumulation was sensitive to metabolic state: Higher glucose availability coincided with lower intracellular Pb, and pharmacological disruption of glycolytic input increased Pb retention under low-glucose conditions, whereas mitochondrial uncoupling showed limited effects. Together, these results support a working model in which warming-enhanced metabolic turnover and glycolysis-linked processes may contribute to Pb handling, potentially involving reactive carbonyl/thiol chemistry and metal-metabolite interactions, rather than reliance on mitochondrial ATP alone. Our findings highlight a temperature-metabolism-metal axis that may alter contaminant fate in warming-impacted coastal systems and underscore the need to incorporate thermal context when interpreting biomonitoring data and assessing metal risk.