Résumé : Teamwork: Structural characterization of the first dinuclear mercury(II) complex with a regular porphyrin reveals dissymmetry induced by binding of dimethyl sulfoxide molecules to the metal ions, which form two allosterically connected binding sites (see structure; graya C, orangea Hg, bluea N, reda O, yellowa S). The cooperativity of the metal insertion can be tuned, either positively or negatively, by the presence of a base or by the interaction with exogenous ligands. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.