Toxicogenomic applications of Chinese rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus) in aquatic toxicology

Rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus), a Chinese native species, are an excellent emerging model organism for aquatic toxicity testing and chemical safety assessment. “Big data” omics approaches (i.e., genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) to inform mechanistic toxicology are now applied to studies in rare minnows to better understand toxicity and molecular pathways perturbed by chemicals. This review highlights recent applications of toxicogenomics to study changes in the gene and protein expression profiles in rare minnows in response to chemicals. Here we briefly describe studies that utilized cDNA microarrays in characterization of the cellular effects of rare minnows in single and mixed chemical exposures. Then we compare gel-based proteomics studies in liver of rare minnows following treatment with endocrine disrupting chemicals including 17β-estradiol, 17α-methyltestosterone, pentachlorophenol, and perfluorooctanoic acid. A total of 90 proteins identified in these studies were functionally annotated and categorized. These responsive proteins have roles in biological processes that include metabolism (37.8%), response to oxidation/chemicals (16.7%), signal transduction (11.1%), transport (10%), cytoskeleton (6.7%) and others (17.8%). In addition, recent investigations of endocrine disrupting effects and neurotoxicity of benzotriazole, an emerging contaminant, are summarized. The objective is to continue to enrich genome and protein databases for this species and to integrate molecular datasets to consider temporal effects and complex regulation at the level of the genome and proteome.