Figure 8 −.

MeHg⁺ or EtHg⁺ can interact with thiol-containing proteins (HMM-SH molecules) and inactivate permanently (top) or transiently (middle) the protein function. In the third type of interaction, the binding of E⁺Hg to the HMM-SH did not modify the protein function (this is somewhat similar to that represented in Figure 7, except that here the E⁺Hg will only transiently interact with the HMM-SH molecule.