Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China.
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Agro-environment and Safe-product, Key Laboratory for Environmental Factors Control of Agro-product Quality Safety (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Institute of Agro-environmental Protection, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2019 Nov 30;184:109602. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.109602. Epub 2019 Sep 4.
Given the wide applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in various fields, the ecotoxicology of ENMs has attracted much attention. The traditional plant physiological activity (e.g., reactive oxygen species and antioxidant enzymes) are limited in that they probe one specific process of nanotoxicity, which may result in the loss of understanding of other important biological reactions. Metabolites, which are downstream of gene and protein expression, are directly related to biological phenomena. Metabolomics is an easily performed and efficient tool for solving the aforementioned problems because it involves the comprehensive exploration of metabolic profiles. To understand the roles of metabolomics in phytotoxicity, the analytical methods for metabolomics should be organized and discussed. Moreover, the dominant metabolites and metabolic pathways are similar in different plants, which determines the universal applicability of metabolomics analysis. The analysis of regulated metabolism will globally and scientifically help determine the ecotoxicology that is induced by ENMs. In the past several years, great developments in nanotoxicology have been achieved using metabolomics. However, many knowledge gaps remain, such as the relationships between biological responses that are induced by ENMs and the regulation of metabolism (e.g., carbohydrate, energy, amino acid, lipid and secondary metabolism). The phytotoxicity that is induced by ENMs has been explored by metabolomics, which is still in its infancy. The detrimental and defence mechanisms of plants in their response to ENMs at the level of metabolomics also deserve much attention. In addition, owing to the regulation of metabolism in plants by ENMs affected by multiple factors, it is meaningful to uniformly identify the key influencing factor.
鉴于工程纳米材料（ENMs）在各个领域的广泛应用，ENMs 的生态毒理学引起了广泛关注。传统的植物生理活性（例如，活性氧和抗氧化酶）存在局限性，因为它们仅探测纳米毒性的一个特定过程，这可能导致对其他重要生物反应的理解缺失。代谢物是基因和蛋白质表达的下游产物，与生物现象直接相关。代谢组学是解决上述问题的一种简单易行且高效的工具，因为它涉及代谢谱的全面探索。为了了解代谢组学在植物毒性中的作用，应该对代谢组学的分析方法进行组织和讨论。此外，不同植物中的主要代谢物和代谢途径相似，这决定了代谢组学分析的普遍适用性。调控代谢的分析将从全局和科学的角度帮助确定由 ENMs 引起的生态毒性。在过去的几年中，代谢组学在纳米毒理学方面取得了巨大的发展。然而，仍存在许多知识空白，例如由 ENMs 诱导的生物反应与代谢调控（例如碳水化合物、能量、氨基酸、脂质和次生代谢）之间的关系。代谢组学已经探索了 ENMs 引起的植物毒性，但仍处于起步阶段。植物对 ENMs 反应的代谢组学水平上的有害和防御机制也值得关注。此外，由于 ENMs 对植物代谢的调控受到多种因素的影响，因此统一识别关键影响因素是有意义的。
