Yeast OMICS System for Environmental Toxicology

Bioassays are used for the assessment of environmental pollution and risk assessment of environmental stresses. In bioassay systems, harmless is estimated by monitoring biological responses to environmental stress. An extensive literature exists on bioassay systems that include tests by Ames, Microtox, Umu, and others. These traditional bioassays did contribute to prevent adverse effect of chemicals in environment. However, the information that can be estimated from traditional bioassay is limited to the degree of toxicity or mutagenicity. For advanced control of environmental toxicology, our challenging is now how extract the information concern to character of toxicity from bioassay. Recent advance of biotechnology established OMICS technology. OMICS technology is made up of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Genomics enables genome-wide analyses of cellular responses at the transcriptional levels, proteomics inform those of protein levels, and metabolomics of metabolite levels. These technologies may contribute a great opportunity for understanding mechanisms of action by chemicals and environmental stress. It was suggested that genomics and proteomics often result in conflicting features, however, genomics and metabolomics did not show conflicting but supplementing each other. Here, we would like to show that genomics and metabolomics suggest the different aspects and thus genomics and metabolomics are not parallel technology but should be integrated. Keyword: OMICS, genomics, metabolomics, yeast, toxicity