Life Sciences Commons^™

C. Elegans Response To Cadmium Toxicity, Brian James Earley

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cadmium is an environmental pollutant and significant health hazard that is similar to the physiological metal zinc. Residing in the same group of the periodic table, cadmium and zinc share chemical characteristics that are important for their industrial uses in electroplating, batteries, pigments, and metal alloys. The similarities of ionic cadmium and zinc have significant repercussions on biological systems. While it has long been clear that cadmium is toxic to biological systems, the mechanisms of cadmium toxicity remain poorly understood. In contrast, mechanisms of zinc homeostasis have been elucidated in growing detail. In C. elegans high zinc homeostasis is regulated …