Chronic nickel bioaccumulation and sub-cellular fractionation in two freshwater teleosts, the round goby and the rainbow trout, exposed simultaneously to waterborne and dietborne nickel

•Goby were more sensitive than trout to chronic Ni exposure.•Trout exhibited an ability to regulate gill Ni bioaccumulation in BIM fractions.•Goby exhibited large Ni spillovers to BAM fractions.•BIM and BAM fractions of the goby gills were equally predictive of chronic mortality.•CBR50 values of the BIM fraction were ∼2–4× greater than those of the BAM fraction. Rainbow trout and round goby were exposed for 30 days to waterborne and dietary Ni in combination at two waterborne concentration ranges (6.2–12μmol/L, 68–86μmol/L), the lower of which is typical of contaminated environments. The prey (black worms; Lumbriculus variegatus) were exposed for 48h in the effluent of the fish exposure tanks before being fed to the fish (ration=2% body weight/day). Ni in gills, gut, and prey was fractionated into biologically inactive metal [BIM=metal-rich granules (MRG) and metallothionein-like proteins (MT)] and biologically active metal [BAM=organelles (ORG) and heat-denaturable proteins (HDP)]. Gobies were more sensitive than trout to chronic Ni exposure. Possibly, this greater sensitivity may have been due to the goby's pre-exposure to pollutants at their collection site, as evidenced by ∼2-fold greater initial Ni concentrations in both gills and gut relative to trout. However, this was followed by ∼2–16× larger bioaccumulation in both the gills and the gut during the experimental exposure. On a subcellular level, ∼3–40× more Ni was associated with the BAM fraction of goby in comparison to trout. Comparison of the fractional distribution of Ni in the prey versus the gut tissue of the predators suggested that round goby were more efficient than rainbow trout in detoxifying Ni taken up from the diet. Assessing sub-cellular distribution of Ni in the gills and gut of two fish of different habitat and lifestyles revealed two different strategies of Ni bioaccumulation and sub-cellular distribution. On the one hand, trout exhibited an ability to regulate gill Ni bioaccumulation and maintain the majority of the Ni in the MT fraction of the BIM. In contrast goby exhibited large Ni spillovers to both the HDP and ORG fractions of the BAM in the gill. However, the same trend was not observed in the gut, where the potential acclimation of goby to pollutants from their collection site may have aided their ability to regulate Ni spillover to the BAM more so than in trout. Overall, chronic mortality observed in goby may be associated more with Ni bioaccumulation in gills than in gut