Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51003, Tartu, Estonia.
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51003, Tartu, Estonia.
Mar Environ Res. 2023 Jul;189:106067. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2023.106067. Epub 2023 Jun 26.
One of the biggest challenges for ecotoxicologists is to detect harmful effects of contaminants on individual organisms before they have caused significant harm to natural populations. One possible approach for discovering sub-lethal, negative health effects of pollutants is to study gene expression, to identify metabolic pathways and physiological processes affected by contaminants. Seabirds are essential components of ecosystems but highly threatened by environmental changes. Being at the top of the food chain and exhibiting a slow pace of life, they are highly exposed to contaminants and to their ultimate impacts on populations. Here we provide an overview of the currently available seabird-related gene expression studies in the context of environmental pollution. We show that studies conducted, so far, mainly focus on a small selection of xenobiotic metabolism genes, often using lethal sampling protocols, while the greater promise of gene expression studies for wild species may lie in non-invasive procedures focusing on a wider range of physiological processes. However, as whole genome approaches might still be too expensive for large-scale assessments, we also bring out the most promising candidate biomarker genes for future studies. Based on the biased geographical representativeness of the current literature, we suggest expanding studies to temperate and tropical latitudes and urban environments. Also, as links with fitness traits are very rare in the current literature, but would be highly relevant for regulatory purposes, we point to an urgent need for establishing long-term monitoring programs in seabirds that would link pollutant exposure and gene expression to fitness traits.
对于生态毒理学家来说，最大的挑战之一是在污染物对自然种群造成重大危害之前，检测其对单个生物的有害影响。一种发现污染物亚致死、负面健康影响的可能方法是研究基因表达，以确定受污染物影响的代谢途径和生理过程。海鸟是生态系统的重要组成部分，但受到环境变化的严重威胁。作为食物链的顶端，它们的生活节奏缓慢，因此极易受到污染物的影响及其对种群的最终影响。在这里，我们概述了目前有关环境污染的海鸟相关基因表达研究。我们表明，迄今为止进行的研究主要集中在一小部分外源代谢基因上，通常使用致命的采样方案，而基因表达研究在野生物种中可能具有更大的前景，因为其专注于更广泛的生理过程的非侵入性程序。然而，由于全基因组方法对于大规模评估可能仍然过于昂贵，因此我们还提出了未来研究最有前途的候选生物标志物基因。根据当前文献的地理代表性偏差，我们建议将研究扩展到温带和热带纬度以及城市环境。此外，由于当前文献中与适应度特征的联系非常罕见，但对于监管目的非常重要，因此我们指出迫切需要在海鸟中建立长期监测计划，将污染物暴露与基因表达与适应度特征联系起来。
