Omic Approaches in Environmental Issues

Abstract

Biomonitoring requires the application of batteries of different biomarkers, as environmental contaminants induce multiple responses in organisms that are not necessarily correlated. Omic technologies were proposed as an alternative to conventional biomarkers since these techniques quantitatively monitor many biological molecules in a high-throughput manner and thus provide a general appraisal of biological responses altered by exposure to contaminants. As the studies using omic technologies increase, it is becoming clear that any single omic approach may not be sufficient to characterize the complexity of ecosystems. This work aims to provide a preliminary working scheme for the use of combined transcriptomic and proteomic methodologies in environmental biomonitoring. There are difficulties in working with nonmodel organisms as bioindicators when combining several omic approaches. As a whole, our results with heterologous microarrays in M. spretus and suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) in P. clarkii indicated that animals sustaining a heavy pollution burden exhibited an enhanced immune response and/or cell apoptosis. The proteomic studies, although preliminary, provide a holistic insight regarding the manner by which pollution shifts protein intensity in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), completing the transcriptomic approach. In our study, the sediment element concentration was in agreement with the intensity of protein expression changes in C. maenas crabs. In conclusion, omics are useful technologies in addressing environmental issues and the determination of contamination threats.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (grant CTM2009-12858.C02-02), the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa of the Junta de Andalucía (grant P08-CVI-03829), the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, grant A/016113/08), and co-financed by FEDER funds. We thank C. Huertas-Abril for the excellent English-language edition of the article. JRL and NAD carried out the microarrays and RT-PCR experiments; IOJ and AVF made the SSH libraries; JAC, ECG, and RFC were in charge of proteomics studies; and CP and JLB supervised the study design and data analysis. All the authors participated in drafting the article. All authors read and approved the final article.