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Invertebrates typically carry out detoxification of accumulated metals. There is, therefore, no threshold total body concentration of accumulated metal initiating toxicity, the onset of toxic effects rather being related to a critical concentration of metabolically available (MA) accumulated metal. The challenge remains as to whether any particular combination of subcellular fractions of accumulated metal can be identified to represent this theoretical MA component. One candidate combined fraction is the so-termed metal sensitive fraction (MSF), consisting of metal bound to organelles and non-detoxificatory soluble proteins. In this study, we used laboratory zinc accumulation and toxicity data for four populations of the oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis with different histories of zinc exposure in the field to address the challenge. We conclude that in a ‘control’ population of the oyster, the MSF does approximate to the theoretical metabolically available zinc concentration. In populations with a history of field exposure to raised zinc bioavailabilities, however, the MSF would include more zinc detoxified in the lysosome component of organelle-bound metal, and the MSF in such populations would deviate more from the theoretical MA metal concentration.

In this study, the effects of Cu and Zn exposure, alone and in combination, on the bioaccumulation of Cd and Hg were investigated in an estuarine oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis under different salinity gradients. We showed that Zn, but not Cu, exposure significantly enhanced the Cd bioaccumulation. In contrast, both Cu and Zn exposure significantly enhanced the Hg bioaccumulation. Combined exposure and salinity did not affect the metal interactions in oysters. The increased tissue concentrations of Cd or Hg were associated with their increased storage in inducible metal-binding ligands (e.g. metallothionein-like proteins, MTLP) by Cu/Zn exposure. The differential roles of Cu and Zn exposure in Cd and Hg bioaccumulation resulted from their contrasting ligand induction and affinities. Analysis of field collected oysters indicated that Cu/Zn exposure was a significant contributor to tissue concentrations of Cd, Cu and Hg. Overall, biochemical/physiological changes of the animals chronically exposed to metal stressors played a key role in affecting tissue concentrations of other metals. One metal's ability to enhance the bioaccumulation of other metals depended upon the relative affinities of the metals for MTLP.

In this study, we tested whether metallothionein-like proteins (MTLPs) affected the biokinetics of Cd and Zn in the scallops Chlamys nobilis following dietary Cd exposure. The scallops were fed Cd-contaminated diatoms for 8 or 40 days, and then the tissue Cd concentrations, MTLP turnover and their standing stocks, Cd and Zn kinetics were monitored. After 8 days of dietary Cd exposure (at 98 or 196 μg Cd g−1), their Cd levels were increased by 7.4–12.5 times, newly synthesized MLTPs by 1.7–2.1 times, and their MLTP stocks doubled. However, after 40 days of dietary Cd exposure (at 58 or 115 μg Cd g−1), MTLP synthesis and MTLP stocks did not change despite the fact that Cd bioaccumulation increased by 2.7–4.2 times. MTLPs played little role in the overall Cd and Zn uptake from either food or water, since enhanced MTLP induction did not improve the sequestration of newly incoming Cd or Zn. As MTLP-metal complexes degraded, the released Cd was immediately sequestered by newly synthesized MTLPs while most Zn was depurated. This may explain why scallops eliminated Cd more slowly than Zn. Induced proteins were shown to play a minor role in the detoxification of dietary Cd in C. nobilis, but the species can modify its Cd assimilation to reduce the impact of high dietary Cd levels. MTLPs are probably unsuitable as biomarkers for environmental monitoring involving C. nobilis.