2007 Volume 82 Pages 41-54
Genomics is the structural and functional study of genomes, and the application of genomic technology to ecotoxicology is known as ecotoxicogenomics. Ecotoxicogenomics is receiving increasing attention because of its potential advantages in several applications, including the identification of pollutants. Because relatively little genetic information is available for Collembola, the identification and characterization of stress-responsive genes constitute the first steps toward using these organisms in ecotoxicogenomics. Field and laboratory studies are currently underway for Orchesella cincta and Folsomia candida, respectively．In O. cincta, a gene for the metal binding protein, metallothionein, was identified and the microevolution of its expression was documented in field populations. In F. candida, which is widely used for ecotoxicity testing, a DNA microarray is being developed for risk assessment in soil ecosystems, and the Collembase, a database of collembolan expressed sequence tags (ESTs), is being developed for F. candida together with O. cincta by the research group at the Vrije University. We have begun the search for stress-responsive genes in F. candida using high-coverage expression profiling (HiCEP). These activities are in their initial stages, but promise to lead to considerable advances in collembolan ecotoxicogenomics.
