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Published on: January 12, 2024
Gene Expression Profiling in Fish Toxicology: A Review.
Girish Kumar1, Nancy D Denslow2
1Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Zátiší 728/II, 389 25, Vodňany, Czech Republic. girishkumar.nio@gmail.com.
This review covers fish transcriptomic responses to chemical exposures, highlighting molecular methods like next-generation sequencing (NGS). Future research should integrate field studies and multi-omics to understand environmental impacts on wild fish.
Area of Science:
- Environmental toxicology
- Molecular biology
- Fish ecotoxicogenomics
Background:
- Chemicals in aquatic environments pose risks to fish health.
- Transcriptomics offers insights into biological responses to chemical stressors.
- Understanding these responses is crucial for environmental monitoring and risk assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review transcriptomic responses in fish exposed to chemicals.
- To evaluate various molecular techniques for gene expression analysis.
- To identify future research directions in fish ecotoxicogenomics.
Main Methods:
- Review of literature on fish transcriptomics and chemical exposure.
- Discussion of molecular techniques: Northern blotting, DDRT-PCR, SSH, RT-qPCR, microarrays, and NGS.
- Analysis of the application of these methods in laboratory and field studies.
Main Results:
- Various molecular techniques are available for measuring gene expression in fish.
- Current studies primarily focus on laboratory conditions and single chemical exposures.
- Limited research exists on the biological significance of gene expression changes in wild fish.
Conclusions:
- Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and decreasing costs show promise for studying wild fish populations.
- Future research needs a multidisciplinary approach (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) under field conditions.
- Understanding synergistic effects of environmental stressors and functional gene significance is essential.
