Chatterjee Nivedita, Gim Jiwan, Choi Jinhee
School of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul, 163 Seoulsiripdaero, Dondaemun-gu, Seoul 02504, Republic of Korea.
Environ Health Toxicol. 2018 Sep;33(3):e2018015-0. doi: 10.5620/eht.e2018015. Epub 2018 Sep 28.
Epigenetics, potentially heritable changes in genome function that occur without alterations to DNA sequence, is an important but understudied component of ecotoxicology studies. A wide spectrum of environmental challenge, such as temperature, stress, diet, toxic chemicals, are known to impact on epigenetic regulatory mechanisms. Although the role of epigenetic factors in certain biological processes, such as tumourigenesis, has been heavily investigated, in ecotoxicology field, epigenetics still have attracted little attention. In ecotoxicology, potential role of epigenetics in multi- and transgenerational phenomenon to environmental stressors needs to be unrevealed. Natural variation in the epigenetic profiles of species in responses to environmental stressors, nature of dose-response relationships for epigenetic effects, and how to incorporate this information into ecological risk assessment should also require attentions. In this review, we presented the available information on epigenetics in ecotoxicological context. For this, we have conducted a systemic review on epigenetic profiling in response to environmental stressors, mostly chemical exposure, in model organisms, as well as, in ecotoxicologically relevant wildlife species.
表观遗传学是指在不改变DNA序列的情况下，基因组功能发生的潜在可遗传变化，它是生态毒理学研究中一个重要但尚未得到充分研究的组成部分。已知多种环境挑战，如温度、压力、饮食、有毒化学物质等，都会影响表观遗传调控机制。尽管表观遗传因素在某些生物学过程（如肿瘤发生）中的作用已得到大量研究，但在生态毒理学领域，表观遗传学仍然很少受到关注。在生态毒理学中，表观遗传学在对环境应激源的多代和跨代现象中的潜在作用仍有待揭示。物种表观遗传图谱对环境应激源反应的自然变异、表观遗传效应的剂量反应关系的性质，以及如何将这些信息纳入生态风险评估，也都需要关注。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了生态毒理学背景下有关表观遗传学的现有信息。为此，我们对模式生物以及与生态毒理学相关的野生动物物种中响应环境应激源（主要是化学物质暴露）的表观遗传图谱进行了系统综述。
