Ecotoxicogenomics: linkages between exposure and effects in assessing risks of aquatic contaminants to fish.
Understanding the biological effects of exposures to chemicals in the environment relies on classical methods and emerging technologies in the areas of genomics, proteomics, and metabonomics. Linkages between the historical and newer toxicological tools are currently being developed in order to predict and assess risk. Being able to classify chemicals and other stressors based on effects they have at the molecular, tissue, and organismal levels helps define a systems biology approach to development of streamlined, cost-effective, and comprehensive testing approaches for evaluating environmental hazards. The challenges of the individual technologies and the combinations of tools for ecotoxicogenomics are discussed in application to aquatic toxicology with a particular emphasis on fish testing.
Miracle
Ann L
AL
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ecological Exposure Research Division, Cincinnati, OH, USA. miracle.ann@epa.gov
Ankley
Gerald T
GT
D000818:Animals; D004463:Ecology; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005399:Fishes; D023281:Genomics; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D008660:Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D040901:Proteomics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D049490:Systems Biology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis
D015386:Hazardous Substances; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical