Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, USA.
Environ Toxicol Chem. 2011 Feb;30(2):265-73. doi: 10.1002/etc.401.
The rapid development of new technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics (Omics) are changing the way ecotoxicology is practiced. The data deluge has begun with genomes of over 65 different aquatic species that are currently being sequenced, and many times that number with at least some level of transcriptome sequencing. Integrating these top-down methodologies is an essential task in the field of systems biology. Systems biology is a biology-based interdisciplinary field that focuses on complex interactions in biological systems, with the intent to model and discover emergent properties of the system. Recent studies demonstrate that Omics technologies provide valuable insight into ecotoxicity, both in laboratory exposures with model organisms and with animals exposed in the field. However, these approaches require a context of the whole animal and population to be relevant. Powerful approaches using reverse engineering to determine interacting networks of genes, proteins, or biochemical reactions are uncovering unique responses to toxicants. Modeling efforts in aquatic animals are evolving to interrelate the interacting networks of a system and the flow of information linking these elements. Just as is happening in medicine, systems biology approaches that allow the integration of many different scales of interaction and information are already driving a revolution in understanding the impacts of pollutants on aquatic systems.
转录组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学（组学）等新技术的快速发展正在改变生态毒理学的实践方式。基因组数据的洪流已经开始，目前正在对超过 65 种不同的水生物种进行测序，而转录组测序至少在某种程度上进行测序的物种数量则是其数倍之多。整合这些自上而下的方法是系统生物学领域的一项基本任务。系统生物学是一个基于生物学的跨学科领域，专注于生物系统中的复杂相互作用，旨在对系统的涌现特性进行建模和发现。最近的研究表明，组学技术为实验室暴露于模式生物和野外暴露于动物的生态毒性提供了有价值的见解。然而，这些方法需要以整个动物和种群为背景才有意义。使用反向工程来确定基因、蛋白质或生化反应相互作用网络的强大方法正在揭示对毒物的独特反应。水生动物的建模工作正在发展，以关联系统的相互作用网络和连接这些元素的信息流。就像在医学中一样，允许整合许多不同交互和信息尺度的系统生物学方法已经引发了一场理解污染物对水生系统影响的革命。
