The present work was undertaken to address the role of protein disulfide isomerase 2 (Pdi2) in the mercury-tolerance of Schizosaccharomyces pombe, using the Pdi2-overexpressing recombinant plasmid pYPDI2 and the corresponding vector plasmid pRS316. When exposed to mercuric chloride, the PDI2 overepxression cells grew significantly better than the vector control cells. They revealed the lower levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO), when incubated with

more »

... chloride for 6 h, than the vector control cells. The PDI2 overepxression cells contained the higher levels of total glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity than the vector control cells, after 6 h of incubation in mercuric chloride. However, the PDI2 overepxression cells contained similar levels of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities, compared to those of the vector control cells. Taken together, the S. pombe Pdi2 promotes the tolerance against mercury toxicity through up-regulating total GSH and SOD and subsequently attenuating ROS and NO elevations.