title: TyPol - a new methodology for organic compounds clustering based on their molecular characteristics and environmental behavior.
abstract: Following legislation, the assessment of the environmental risks of 30000-100000 chemical substances is required for their registration dossiers. However, their behavior in the environment and their transfer to environmental components such as water or atmosphere are studied for only a very small proportion of the chemical in laboratory tests or monitoring studies because it is time-consuming and/or cost prohibitive. Therefore, the objective of this work was to develop a new methodology, TyPol, to classify organic compounds, and their degradation products, according to both their behavior in the environment and their molecular properties. The strategy relies on partial least squares analysis and hierarchical clustering. The calculation of molecular descriptors is based on an in silico approach, and the environmental endpoints (i.e. environmental parameters) are extracted from several available databases and literature. The classification of 215 organic compounds inputted in TyPol for this proof-of-concept study showed that the combination of some specific molecular descriptors could be related to a particular behavior in the environment. TyPol also provided an analysis of similarities (or dissimilarities) between organic compounds and their degradation products. Among the 24 degradation products that were inputted, 58% were found in the same cluster as their parents. The robustness of the method was tested and shown to be good. TyPol could help to predict the environmental behavior of a "new" compound (parent compound or degradation product) from its affiliation to one cluster, but also to select representative substances from a large data set in order to answer some specific questions regarding their behavior in the environment.
authors.affiliation: INRA, Université de Toulouse, UMR 1331 Toxalim, Research Centre in Food Toxicology, F-31027 Toulouse, France; INRA, UR 050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France. Electronic address: remi.servien@toulouse.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Rémi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Servien
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 251 PESSAC, Route de St Cyr, F-78026 Versailles, France.
authors.forename: Laure
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mamy
authors.affiliation: UMR 1091 INRA-AgroParisTech, Environnement et Grandes Cultures, F-78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Ziang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rossard
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Latrille
authors.affiliation: Université de Toulouse, INPT, Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan, Equipe DINA, 75 voie du TOEC, BP 57611, F-31076 Toulouse Cedex 03, France; Université de Toulouse, UPS, IRSAMC, Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantiques, 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France; CNRS (UMR 5626), F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bessac
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR 050, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patureau
authors.affiliation: UMR 1091 INRA-AgroParisTech, Environnement et Grandes Cultures, F-78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Benoit
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004777:Environment; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D009930:Organic Chemicals
keywords: Clustering; Degradation products; Environmental fate; Molecular modeling; Partial least squares; Pesticides