Elevated Temperature Promotes Metal Clearance in Chaeturichthys stigmatias with Glycolysis-Linked Signatures

Elevated temperature reshapes physiological processes in aquatic ectotherms, yet how warming influences metal retention and clearance remains insufficiently resolved in fish. Here, we examined temperature-linked variation in tissue metal burdens in the demersal fish Chaeturichthys stigmatias . Across environmentally relevant temperature gradients, muscle concentrations of multiple metals declined with increasing temperature, with the strongest pattern observed for Pb. To explore mechanistic plausibility, we profiled Pb-associated protein fractions using SEC-ICP-MS and found that Pb-binding fractions were enriched for carbohydrate metabolism annotations, including glycolysis-related proteins. In parallel, metabolic perturbation assays indicated that cellular Pb accumulation was sensitive to metabolic state: Higher glucose availability coincided with lower intracellular Pb, and pharmacological disruption of glycolytic input increased Pb retention under low-glucose conditions, whereas mitochondrial uncoupling showed limited effects. Together, these results support a working model in which warming-enhanced metabolic turnover and glycolysis-linked processes may contribute to Pb handling, potentially involving reactive carbonyl/thiol chemistry and metal–metabolite interactions, rather than reliance on mitochondrial ATP alone. Our findings highlight a temperature–metabolism–metal axis that may alter contaminant fate in warming-impacted coastal systems and underscore the need to incorporate thermal context when interpreting biomonitoring data and assessing metal risk.