A hidden demethylation pathway removes mercury from rice plants and mitigates mercury flux to food chains.
Journal
Nature food
ISSN: 2662-1355
Titre abrégé: Nat Food
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101761102
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
04 Jan 2024
04 Jan 2024
Historique:
received:
02
02
2023
accepted:
01
12
2023
medline:
5
1
2024
pubmed:
5
1
2024
entrez:
4
1
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Dietary exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) causes irreversible damage to human cognition and is mitigated by photolysis and microbial demethylation of MeHg. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has been identified as a major dietary source of MeHg. However, it remains unknown what drives the process within plants for MeHg to make its way from soils to rice and the subsequent human dietary exposure to Hg. Here we report a hidden pathway of MeHg demethylation independent of light and microorganisms in rice plants. This natural pathway is driven by reactive oxygen species generated in vivo, rapidly transforming MeHg to inorganic Hg and then eliminating Hg from plants as gaseous Hg°. MeHg concentrations in rice grains would increase by 2.4- to 4.7-fold without this pathway, which equates to intelligence quotient losses of 0.01-0.51 points per newborn in major rice-consuming countries, corresponding to annual economic losses of US$30.7-84.2 billion globally. This discovered pathway effectively removes Hg from human food webs, playing an important role in exposure mitigation and global Hg cycling.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38177223
doi: 10.1038/s43016-023-00910-x
pii: 10.1038/s43016-023-00910-x
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)
ID : 42107223
Organisme : National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)
ID : 52388101
Organisme : National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)
ID : 12222509
Organisme : National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)
ID : U2032201
Organisme : Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation)
ID : BK20190319
Organisme : Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology)
ID : RGPIN-2018-05421
Organisme : DOE | Office of Science (SC)
ID : No. DE-AC05-00OR22725
Organisme : DOE | Office of Science (SC)
ID : No. DE-AC05-00OR22725
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
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