Meagher Laboratory MerA&B Plants on Methylmercury

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Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants expressing both the merA and merB genes are the most highly resistant to methylmercury

Plants co-expressing merA & merB have the highest levels of methylmercury resistance and processing! They convert methylmercury in two steps to Hg(0).0.2 ppm of methylmercury is equivalent to 1 uM.

However, plants expressing merB alone are resistant enough to grow on almost any methylmercury contaminated sediment in the environment. These plants trap the small amounts of Hg(II) in their tissues and keep growing.

Bizily et al., 1999; 2000

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*Transgenic Arabidopsis* thaliana plants expressing both the merA and merB genes are the most highly resistant to methylmercury**
Plants co-expressing merA & merB have the highest levels of methylmercury resistance and processing! They convert methylmercury in two steps to Hg(0).0.2 ppm of methylmercury is equivalent to 1 uM. However, plants expressing merB alone are resistant enough to grow on almost any methylmercury contaminated sediment in the environment. These plants trap the small amounts of Hg(II) in their tissues and keep growing.