Abstract
Batillaria snails are a dominant group in the tidal wetlands along the Japanese coast. In this study, we monitored the metals concentration in the sediments and in the soft tissue of B. cumingii, which is the direct-developing snail, collected from Kasai-oki and Banzu tidalflats located in Tokyo Bay and Nakatsu tidalflats at Oita Prefecture. The metals concentration such as Cr, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn in the sediment of Kasai-oki was higher than that of other's. The Cd concentration in sediments of Banzu was lower than that of Nakatsu, but the Cd in the soft tissue of the snails from Banzu tidalflat showed higher concentration than that of Nakatsu. The snails of Banzu tidalflat represented higher amounts of MTLPs (metallothionein-like-proteins), which were calculated by using Cd-chelex assay, than the snails of Nakatsu tidalflats. It is seemed that some environmental stress might be force the snails to represent MTs (metallothioneins) in their body, therefore, the relationship between metals concentration in the sediments and in the snail bodies was not confirmed.
