Ecological and toxicological assessments of anthropogenic contaminants based on environmental metabolomics

There has long been a great concern with growing anthropogenic contaminants and their ecological and toxicological effects on living organisms and the surrounding environment for decades. Metabolomics, a functional readout of cellular activity, can capture organismal responses to various contaminant-related stressors, acquiring direct signatures to illustrate the environmental behaviours of anthropogenic contaminants better. This review entails the application of metabolomics to profile metabolic responses of environmental organisms, e.g. animals (rodents, fish, crustacean and earthworms) and microorganisms (bacteria, yeast and microalgae) to different anthropogenic contaminants, including heavy metals, nanomaterials, pesticides, pharmaceutical and personal products, persistent organic pollutants, and assesses their ecotoxicological impacts with regard to literature published in the recent five years. Contaminant-induced metabolism alteration and up/down-regulation of metabolic pathways are revealed in typical organisms. The obtained insights of variations in global metabolism provide a distinct understanding of how anthropogenic contaminants exert influences on specific metabolic pathways on living organisms. Thus with a novel ecotechnique of environmental metabolomics, risk assessments of anthropogenic contaminants are profoundly demonstrated. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

Automated summary

This review discusses the application of metabolomics in analyzing the metabolic responses of environmental organisms to various anthropogenic contaminants, as well as evaluating their ecotoxicological impacts. It reveals both the effects of contaminants on metabolism in organisms and the regulation of metabolic pathways, providing insights into how anthropogenic contaminants influence specific metabolic pathways in living organisms through global metabolism variations. The study demonstrates the potential for risk assessments of anthropogenic contaminants using environmental metabolomics.