Progress in Application of Metabonomic Approaches in Ecotoxicology
代谢组学方法在生态毒理学中的应用进展

Metabonomics methodology is increasingly being applied to investigate the interactions of organisms with their natural ecological environment. Recently, this method has been applied to chemical risk assessment and diagnosis of diseases in wild animals, becoming one of the vibrant research areas in environmental science and ecological toxicology in particular. This article introduced two detecting and measuring technologies, i.e., nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, which are commonly used in metabonomics. This review focused on the application of metabonomics approach in biomarker development and risk assessment of toxicants exposure, metabonomic responses to environmental stressors, and disease diagnosis and monitoring of wild aquatic animals. This growing application of metabolomics in ecotoxicology is believed to shed new light on understanding of important questions related to organism-environment interactions.